Yellowknife (Mar 03/04) - It was enough to turn the most ardent meat lover into a vegetarian.

Seven Yellowknifers bellied up to the table Saturday night at Coyote's Bar and Grill to try their hand at consuming a 48 oz. steak in the hopes of winning up to $900 in cash and prizes.

The contestants worked their way through the massive slab of meat (gristle included), a baked potato and a drink to the cheers of the restaurant's other patrons.

It was a spectacle of over consumption, the likes of which led to the downfall of the Roman Empire.

You half expected to see Nero in the background playing a fiddle, while senators and consuls sipped red wine and feasted on plums.

Eventual victor Jamie Stringer won using the "Early Man" technique, grabbing the three-pound piece of flesh in his hands and tearing into it as if it were fresh off the rump of a gazelle.

Stringer, a 23-year-old parts technician, polished off the steak in just over 13 minutes, a full half hour ahead of his next closest competitor.

"I came here to win," said Stringer, who researched his strategy on a Web site devoted to professional eating. "I found that fasting would work against you."

"So I ate as much as I could in the days leading up to this and had a big breakfast and a bowl of soup for lunch (the day of the competition)."

Stringer also downed several glasses of water because, as he explained, it expands your stomach without filling you up. He won a $150 cash prize, a $150 gift certificate at Coyote's and a discount card that could be worth up to $600.

Only three of the seven competitors were able to finish their massive steak and the accompanying baked potato.

Next year, Coyote's owner Edward But plans to cut back on the size of the steak, likely to 40 oz.