U.S. Hot Dog Hero Nips Nipponese

Nathan’s annual eating contest took place in Coney. Revised rules for 2008 cut the time limit from 12 minutes down to its original 10 minutes. As time expired, the two favorites had each swallowed 59 hotdogs and buns! In the first-ever tie breaker, last year’s weiner, Californian Joey Chestnut defeated six-time weiner, Japanese Takeru Kobayashi by downing five additional dogs first. That’s a weining total of 64 hotdogs! Eating contestants really do have guts! At Nathan’s current price of $2.95 per hotdog, Mr. Chestnuts’ recent meal would have cost $188.80 if ordered at Nathan's counter. Maybe that explains the appeal of eating in the contest as opposed to ordering at the counter.