Peruvian Chefs set World's Largest Ceviche Record

Peruvian chefs, elbow deep in more than six tons of sliced fish, onions and lime, won on Sunday the Guinness World Record for preparing the largest ceviche, a Peruvian seafood specialty.
The classic dish, made from raw fish and a spicy citrus sauce that "cooks" it, weighed in at 6.8 tons, 2 tons more than the previous record.

Some 450 students and chefs worked in an open-air sports stadium in Callao, a working-class district near Peru's capital -- slicing, dicing and mixing white fish with lime, salt, onions and aji peppers.

A Guinness representative was on hand to make the count official. "Today, we have brought together all the people of Callao so that in the name of Peru, we can take back the Guinness record," said Callao's regional president Alexander Kouri, who stood in front of 14 giant metal containers filled with fish.

The previous record for the world's largest ceviche, weighing in at 4.5 tons, was set in Mexico in 2005. Prior to that, Peru held it at 4.1 tons.

To weigh the ceviche, students scooped it into smaller boxes that they put on top of a movable scale. It took some two dozen hands to lift each container.

Ronald Espinoza, 25, was one of the students on hand to prepare the ceviche. He said the dish, which has been a constant in Peru since the time of the Incas, gives people a reason to get together and celebrate.

Hundreds of people from the neighborhood waited outside the Callao stadium for a plate of food.
"A Peruvian who does not eat ceviche is not Peruvian," said Espinoza.

602 Taps in 60 Seconds Guinness World Record

Tony Adams has just had confirmation that he smashed the Guinness World Record of 512 tap beats a minute, previously held in England, with a staggering 602 beats.

Crippled at birth, Mr Adams was sent to tap lessons by his mother in the hope it would straighten his calliper-bound legs without invasive surgery. "She lost her mother to a medical misadventure when she was 13, and lost my brother to an operation on a brain tumour, so she wasn't having a bar of me having an operation," he said.

He compared himself to Forrest Gump as a toddler, with crooked, underdeveloped legs, but the discipline and exercise of tap dancing were just the cure.

Mr Adams attended Naenae College, where he was teased by classmates for dancing, but he went on to win many national dance titles and become New Zealand's first male tap-dancing teacher in his late teens.

From the age of 15 he knew he had the skill to break world records, but it was not till early this year that someone challenged him to prove it. He attempted and broke the record live on New Zealand national television.

His speed tap-dancing record equates to an average of 10 tap beats per second, but he reached 15 per second at his fastest.

"It's pretty challenging to sustain that pace for 60 seconds, and a minute has never felt longer," he said. His mother, Mary Adams, 82, watched her son break the record. "I'm very proud of him but I really can't understand what all the fuss is about. He was a much better dancer when he was younger," she said.

His 602 taps were recorded with a microphone and specialised computer software, which converted each individual tap from audio to digital so they could be more easily counted. The technology enables sound waves to be displayed graphically like heartbeats on a heart-rate monitor.

Tap-dancing teacher Jeanette Mullins acted as an official witness at the attempt. She was astonished to see Mr Adams don the patent leather tap shoes he last performed in 32 years ago, describing them as antiques.

Mural painted by Lilly employees sets record

Eli Lilly and Co.'s efforts last May to paint a mural eight football fields long on Madison Avenue between Raymond Street and Terrace Avenue have made it into the Guinness World Records. Employees of the Indianapolis drugmaker donated their time to the 1,230-foot-long project, which now is considered the world's largest paint-by-number mural.

Lilly and Keep Indianapolis Beautiful submitted the Southside mural for consideration by Guinness.

The record was held previously in China. Patrick Viles, a former Manual High School who studied at the Art Institute of Indianapolis, designed the mural to showcase fun, hard work, and healthy living in Indiana, according to a news release today.Well-known Indianapolis landmarks are featured, including the Indianapolis Zoo, The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis and the city’s Southside.

The mural was among 60 beautification projects completed in partnership with Keep Indianapolis Beautiful and more than 50 local community organizations during Lilly's inaugural Global Day of Service in May.