Nathan's Frankfurter Contest

In addition to today being the anniversary of Dan Ingram's first broadcast in New York on WABC in 1961, tomorrow is the annual Nathan's Famous Frankfurter eating contest.

Last year's champion was a skinny guy who lives in Japan. I can probably eat three franks from Nathan's. If I pushed it, four, but I would not enjoy the fourth. What do you think of this contest? and how many can you eat, or would want to eat if they were free?

I frankly don't know how they do it! Don't they have to eat the buns, too? I **might** be capable of five without the bread, but all that starch would just expand in your stomach and....<<<urp>>>

How many did the skinny dude eat to win?

Skinny Japanese dude ate 50 in 12 minutes. Food network has covered this with a special and I would expect very wide coverage of this contest on CNN, CNBC and Fox tomorrow.

SJD eats them 2 at a time, dogs only. Then he squeezes all the air out of the rolls and eats them. It's like feeding logs into one of those woodchippers. You have to eat dog and bun.

No one had ever eaten more than 20 or so until last year. I'm guessing I could do 5 or 6 if I pushed it.

And not in 12 minutes.

The Japanese will take it again. "Refrigerator" Perry is a 100-1 shot according to odd makers. ESPN has a great article at http://espn.go.com/page2/s/hruby/030703.html on the contest. For you older WABC listeners like myself, displaced New Jersey teenager now in Florida from a earlier generation there's some great sound files of the old WABC at http://musicradio.computer.net/miscella.html

I am a big guy 6'5 over 350Lbs. On my best day I can barely eat 6 naked dogs. 3 Dressed dogs and I am stuffed. By the way this post makes my 50th, I am no longer a Junior Burger.......I am glad because there is nothing junior about me. LOL

Contest being broadcast live on ESPN at noon EDT.

Not to get too far off topic there was a Hot Dog joint in Western NY state called AJ's Texas Hots. My record with chili, cheese and onions is eight after entertaining a bet with some friends. Signman thanks for the reminder, just told the wife to call me when it's 12:00. Sure don't want to miss the contest!

Looks like it was a repeat of last year. Takeru Kobayashi, the 5-foot-7 Japanese eating machine devoured 44 franks in 12 minutes. Reportedly he was upset by his poor performance. Also a new American record was set but I didn't get the details.

Full results here; http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1057342416715_64/?hub=TopStories

Man, I don't know how that Japanese guy does it. I'm a big guy too, and I can't eat that much stuff(anymore). My record was 22 pieces of fish at Captain D's when I was about 12 or 13,(late 70's early 80's) this was when they still had the larger pieces of fish too. After unbuttoning my belt,groaning loudly upon leaving, and swearing never to be that gluttonous again, I haven't eaten that much. I still can't stand to smell or eat onion rings made with pancake batter after eating them till I got sick one time as a kid.
I can't really watch these eating contests without getting queasy.

When my boyfriend was back in his big bad biker days, back in the early 70s, he ate (he says, and I believe it), 21 pieces of fried chicken washed down with a bottle of Ripple. I asked him what the prize was and he said, "No prize, just didn't have to pay for it". "Didja get sick?" "You bet I did! Sick as a dog!" At 6'4" and around 280, it's no wonder he ate like that. Today I paid him a visit to his sickbed, as he has a bit of a flu bug, and he could barely eat a little chicken-and-cheese sandwich on a kaiser roll...21 pieces of fried chicken...shaking my head...

Nathan's dogs are extraordinarily tasty, but 50 in 12 minutes is insane. These contestants must have some sort of eating disorder.

As a young lad, I ate more than anyone I knew. Back in 5th grade, we kept track of our calories for a health class. I was a skinny little twerp, but still managed to eat over 2500 calories per day for a week. It was 500 more than anyone else. When I was 9 or 10, I ate 9 hot dogs (with buns...I always loved bread) for lunch on a fishing boat. I routinely ate entire blocks of cheese. I used to eat a whole large (12") pizza myself. Perhaps worst of all was the time I consumed an entire block of fudge in one sitting. I guess my metabolism was a little quicker back then. And I just didn't know when to say when.

Nowadays, I weigh more and eat less. Doesn't seem fair.

quote:

Originally posted by ToddH

Man, I don't know how that Japanese guy does it. I'm a big guy too, and I can't eat that much stuff(anymore). My record was 22 pieces of fish at Captain D's when I was about 12 or 13,(late 70's early 80's) this was when they still had the larger pieces of fish too.

To this day, I still think the best restaurant value I ever enjoyed was the every Monday night all-you-can-eat fish dinner sold at Captain D's seafood shoppes in the late 70s and early 80s. It was a very popular offering here, and our two locations were always full.

The fish fillets were good sized and not over-battered, and the special applied to whole dinner - slaw, fries, and the hush you puppies. All four foods came out well prepared, and staff brought them right to the customer's table. The fish and hot items would be hot, and you rarely had to wait for more.

The price was really too low, an opinion I sometimes mentioned to managers, as I wanted this special to continue forever. It did run continuously for quite a few years. I was sometimes embarassed by the amount I ate, but their fried fish was too good to resist.

I always brought people with me those nights and tipped the staff, though it's a non tipping kind of place.

Captain D's was owned by the Shoney's people back then (and may still be), but they don't serve the great fish we once flocked there for. As the fish is now sliced thin and narrow and over battered, I rarely eat there anymore.