What a waste of food!!!

4th of July in the USA usually means barbeques and fireworks. Lots of it. While we non-Americans take this holiday as just another day out of the office, some take it very seriously when it comes to food, risking all stomach and oesophagus injuries by competing in the famous Nathan's Hotdog Eating Contest at Coney Island. 2007's record: 66 hotdog buns in 12minutes. Yes, you read it right! SIXTY-SIX hotdogs AND buns!!! That is at a rate of 1 hotdog every 10.9seconds! And 20,390 calories in one man's stomach!

This year, the Mustard Belt title is reclaimed by a rather skinny American, Joey Chestnut. You would think all these "Food Shove" eating contest are usually full of fat Amercians with wobbly bellies big enough to start a small earthquake BUT hell, NO! Starting with the dominant Japanese Champion, Takeru "Tsunami" Kobayashi, his small frame and "revolutionary eating techniques" had silenced competition for 6 years until Joey Chestnut came along.

Fighting jaw pain and a fierce competition this year, the Jap still took part in the competition despite barely able to open an inch of his mouth 1-2 weeks before. Amidst chants of "U.S.A!!! U.S.A!!!" from the maddening crowd, Joey literally "inhaled" the hotdog buns(as USAToday claims), shoving and jumping and wriggling in all manners of voodoo dancing to let the dogs slide down his "super-wide oesophagus" by now. Thank god I was not near to the stage cos the close-ups of 17 fierce competitors dribbling and spewing saliva/water/bits of buns & dogs is soooo...not a pretty sight before my lunch!!!

At the very last 30seconds, these 2 were fighting dog to dog and with both at 63 hotdogs finally, the timer stopped - with no clear winner. After 5mins of reviewing the tape(ESPN covered the even "live"), they proudly declared Joey Chestnut as the winner with 66 hotdogs down! Breaking all records ever, incl. Kobayashi's record last year of 53.75 hotdogs. Kinda dodgy if you ask me but maybe the Americans really wanted to win the Mustard Belt badly. *shrug* It is National pride at stake here for sure...muahahaha... In a way, I think Chestnut is probably this generation's version of an "American Hero". Maybe he'll take home a "Popcorn" trophy at the next MTV awards.

All in all, it was a pretty exciting 12 minutes and I still find it hard to believe that this svelte and petite female who took part actually shoved down 39 hotdogs! This amazing lady, Sonya "Black Widow" Thomas, is my weight and she is the US's No.3 competitive eater and the world's 4th ranking. Why in the world would she be a professional food competitor is beyond me...and how the hell did she keep that figure with all that food!?!?! I know Emmanuel and I took like 8 minutes to chow down on a pack of fries and one hotdog - and we are both not "svelte" for sure. *sigh*

Check out Sonya's Eating Records:
* Asparagus
5.75 pounds of tempura deep fried asparagus spears in 10 minutes
* Cheesecakes
11 pounds of downtown Atlantic cheesecake in 9 minutes[12]
* Chicken nuggets
80 chicken nuggets in 5 minutes
* Chicken wings
167 chicken wings in 32 minutes
* Crabcakes
46 three ounce crabcakes in 10 minutes
* Eggs
65 hard boiled eggs in 6 minutes and 40 seconds
* Fruitcakes
4 pounds, 14 1/4 ounces of Wegman's Fruitcake in 10 minutes
* Hamburgers
7 burgers (3/4 pound) "Thickburgers" in 10 minutes
* Jambalaya
9 pounds of crawfish jambalaya in 10 minutes
* Lobster
44 lobsters totaling 11.3 pounds of lobster meat in 12 minutes
* Oysters
46 dozen Acme Oysters in 10 minutes
* Pizza
6 extra large Baci pizza slices in 15 minutes
* Pulled pork
23 pulled pork sandwiches in 10 minutes
* Tacos
43 soft tacos in 11 minutes
* Tater tots
250 tater tots in 5 minutes
* Turducken
7 3/4 pounds Turducken.com Thanksgiving Dinner in 12 minutes[13]