This dude ate 44 hot dogs!!!
The Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest which has gone on yearly since 1916 in New York's Coney Island on the July 4 holiday ended this year with Takeru Kobayashi (of Nagano, Japan) making his 3rd win in a row. Although the 44 1/2 hot dogs this 25 year old man managed to gulf down is quite a feat, it was a huge disappointment to him since it didn't beat his last record of 51 1/2 hot dogs eaten last year in 2002.
Ed "Cookie" Jarvis of Long Island broke the American record, taking second place with 30 and a half hot dogs. Eric “Badlands” Booker won third place, eating 29 hot dogs.
Unfortunately, William "The Refrigerator" Perry dropped out of the race after 5 minutes having eaten a mere 4 weiners. It's quite interesting how the Fridge outweighs the champ by almost 300 pounds. 'but you've gotta love the man for trying! 'heck, I've run out this week and purchased a few dozen hot dogs and buns for the sake of seeing if I've got what it takes to take on any of these fellas.
Errrrr, bad, bad, very bad idea! Short of emptying out my stomach's contents after several minutes of gorging, I decided that maybe noodles or pasta might be my thing. I'm quite the noodle man myself! It's my fave food of choice on every one of my visits to Chinatown. 'and hey, a pound of pasta or noodles is much much cheaper than a dozen hot dogs and buns, aye?
Regardless, let's see if Takeru has what it takes to make it to another year of this international event. Methinks, maybe not. 'But congrats Takeru for a job well done nonetheless.
So, how many hot dogs can you eat?