July 4th. The day America was born, 234 years ago. The day our forefathers declared independence from the rule of the Kingdom of Great Britain. A day we Americans celebrate every year with fireworks, parades, barbecues, family reunions, fairs, and various other public and private events celebrating the history and traditions of this greatest nation on earth. And one of those public events is the Nathan's International July Fourth Hot Dog Eating Contest held in where else, Coney Island, New York.
2010 marks the 95th time this hot dog eating contest has taken place. On July 4, 1916, four immigrants had a hot dog eating contest at Nathan's famous hot dog stand on Coney Island to settle an argument about who was the most patriotic. 95 years later, this contest is a huge event that is televised live across the nation. Seeing it on TV is, of course, how most of us were probably first exposed to it. And watching it once may have been all it took to never watch it again.
This event is so big that you have to win your way to being a contestant in it by winning one of the many qualifying hot dog eating contests held around the country prior to the July 4th Coney Island showdown. No, I'm serious. It's like the World Cup, or football teams trying to make the playoffs. You have to qualify by gorging yourself with hot dogs just to get in.
With this event getting the media coverage it does, one of the names you might recognize is that little Japanese dude, Takeru Kobayashi. This tiny little 5 foot 8, 132 lb. eating freak came on the scene in 2001 and shattered hot dog eating records by choking down 50 hot dogs, with buns, in 10 minutes!!! He went on to win this event 6 years in a row before finally getting "dogged" by another name you may recognize, Joey Chestnut.
Chestnut dethroned Kobayashi in 2007 by throwing down a then record 66 hot dogs WITH buns in TEN minutes!!!! For those of you counting, that's over 20,000 calories! In 10 minutes!!! I can't eat 66 hot dogs in a month. Well, I probably could, but man would I be sick of hot dogs! Poor Kobayashi was only able to eat 63. Two years later, Chestnut broke his own record with SIXTY-EIGHT!!!! Are you kidding me? Next time you're at the grocery store, put 8 packages of hot dogs buns in your shopping cart. Even without the hot dogs you can see how much mass this guy is shoveling into his stomach. And consider that the human stomach is about 12 inches long and 6 inches wide. And good luck trying to figure out the number of hot dog packages you will need to match the 8 packages of buns you have in your cart. It's an 8 to 10 buns to dogs ratio, right? Something like that.
Joey Chestnut, or "Jaws" is the current big time eating freak. He has won the 4th of July contest 4 years in a row now. He holds the record with 68 hot dogs along with numerous other eating records.
WARNING: some of this stuff might be a little gross, to say the least.
Chestnut's records include;
8.8 pounds of fried asparagus in 10 minutes,
182 chicken wings in 30 minutes,
5.9 pounds of funnel cake in 10 minutes,
47 grilled cheese sandwiches in 10 minutes,
103 Krystal burgers, aka sliders, in 8 minutes,
56 sausage & cheese kolaches from the Kolache Factory in Houston, TX, in 8 minutes,
19 six-inch Philly Cheesesteaks in 10 minutes,
and 45 pulled pork sandwiches in 10 minutes.
Holy freaking crap!!!!! Can you imagine him pulling up to the Jack-in-the-Box drive thru at 2 in the morning? "Yes, I only have about 10 minutes to eat so I just want to order 348 tacos. Thanks."
Any fries with that?
And he's not the only big eater out there. In fact, big eating is so big it's become a sport and has it's own professional league known as Major League Eating. I am not joking. Here's more world records by other big eaters:
Sonya Thomas - 8.8 lbs. of Vienna sausages - 10 min.
Don Lerman - 6 lbs. of baked beans in one minute
Richard LeFevre - 5 lbs. of birthday cake - 11 min.
Takeru Kobayashi - 58 Johnsonville Brats - 10 min.
Don Lerman - 7 sticks of BUTTER - 5 min.
Sonya Thomas - 11 lbs. of cheesecake - 9 min.
Cookie Jarvis - six 11 oz. chicken fried steaks w/gravy - 12 min.
Oleg Zhornitskiy - four 32-ounce bowls of MAYONNAISE!!!!!! - 8 min.
OK, that does it for me, but the list goes on and on.
So a big thank you to our forefathers for signing the Declaration of Independence 234 years ago, and giving us the freedom to do the things we do today, and unfortunately take for granted all too often, even if that includes eating enough in 10 minutes to feed an African village for 6 months.
GOD BLESS AMERICA!!!!!! Lord knows we need it!
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