foot long dog

with the recent chili competition (and drawn out controversy), smells of barbeque wafting in the air, gowanus hot dogs, and promises of july 4th, i got to thinking about a little piece of society that i know fascinates us all:

competitive eating.

what event symbolizes this great country better than the classic american wolf-em-down, munch-your-lunch contest of the mouth and the gut?

thanks to a light schedule at work today (hardy har), i was able to investigate some of the more impressive achievements that the leaders of the competitive eating world have posted:

Butter: 7 quarter-pound sticks, salted butter in 5 minutes (Don Lerman)

Cow Brains: 57 (17.7 pounds) in 15 minutes (Takeru Kobayashi)

Eggs: 65 Hard Boiled Eggs in 6 minutes, 40 seconds (Sonya Thomas)

Mayonnaise: 4 32-ounce bowls mayonnaise in 8 minutes (Oleg Zhornitskiy)

Baked Beans: 84 ounces in 1 minute 52 seconds (Dale Boone)

other memorable meals include:

Tacos: 48 soft chicken tacos in 11 minutes (Sonya Thomas)
Tiramisu: 4 pounds tiramisu in 6 minutes (Timothy Janus)

Whole Turkey: 4 pounds, 12.8 ounces roast turkey meat in 12 minutes (Patrick Bertoletti)

Burritos: 15 BurritoVille burritos in 8 minutes (Eric Booker)

Cheesecake: 11 pounds Downtown Atlantic Cheesecake in 9 minutes (Sonya Thomas)

an interesting aside: the international federation of competitive eating also sponsors "steeple-chase" contests around the country, with menus such as Pork burgers + Beef ribeye sandwiches + Turkey Legs + Grilled Cheese Sandwiches + Cupcakes [who could forget dessert?], and the classier Shrimp + Pralines + Hot Dogs + Nachos + Gelato [this seems like more of a light to middleweight competition]

and if you think that the world of competitive eating is amateur or unorganized, think again! standards are rigorously enforced, and a scientific, peer-reviewed approach is highly promoted (click for a larger image):

let's hear it for america and food!!!!!