Kobayashi announces in his latest blog entry that he had difficulty with his jaw during his attempt to break the IFOCE fruitcake record in New York City on December 26. A section of the blog translated by Google follows:

In deciding to eat is not prepared to break the jaw

And there was a conflict while eating.

I do believe that can be! And so it is

The embarrassing truth is conflict.

Food was like clay.

To assert that the food is bad for the jaw before.

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Commercial co-starring Adam Richman’s mother, facebook gallery

Facebook photo gallery

Restaurants

• Brick Lane Curry House Challenge Restaurant
  Home Page – Reviews: Citysearch, Yelp
  Serious Eats blog entry about Phall of Fame curry challenge attempt
• Katz’ Deli
  Home Page – Reviews: Citysearch, Yelp
• Sylvia’s
  Home Page – Reviews: Citysearch, Yelp

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The Brooklyn Papers has an article about about the possible effects of the Coney Island rezoning plans on the original Nathan’s location:

The beloved frankfurter franchise — which has stood on the corner Surf and Stillwell avenues since 1916 — is a possible casualty of the controversial plan because it sits on land whose value could soar after a rezoning opens it up to development.

“[Nathan’s is] assumed to be replaced under the proposed actions with a new building, containing hotel, amusement, retail and enhancing uses,” according to the Draft Environmental Impact Statement, which was posted online by the city on Friday afternoon, but not announced until the Department of City Planning distributed a press release that is embargoed until Tuesday morning.

ConeyIsland.com has a forum thread about the article.

Building a tower on top of the original Nathan’s building was mentioned as another post-rezoning possibility last February.

update The NY Post has an article and curbed.com has a blog entry containing a statement from Nathan’s CEO Eric Gatoff:

Nathan’s Famous supports all efforts to revitalize Coney Island. We remain committed to Coney Island in the long-term and we fully intend to maintain our historic flagship restaurant at 1310 Surf Avenue, which has been the heart of the company since it was established in 1916.

As to the latest report issued by the City, we believe the information relating to Nathan’s Famous is being misinterpreted and that there is no intention to replace or demolish our flagship location. In fact, the Coney Island Development Corporation’s own drawings of its intended redevelopment continue to show Nathan’s Famous in the same location on which it has stood for 93 years, on the corner of Surf and Stillwell Avenues, at the front door to the ‘People’s Playground.

update #2 The Brooklyn Paper has another article which points out that Nathan’s did not rule out replacing the existing Nathan’s restaurant on Surf & Stillwell with a completely new building.

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Several galleries of New York City IFOCE contests have been uploaded to flickr recently:

• Famous Famiglia pizza contest gallery with French captions. There are additional pictures in the slideshow embedded in the blog entry about the contest
• Gallery with pictures from both the 2005 and 2006 Nathan’s finals
• 2005 Nathan’s gallery, mainly of the TV van
• 2006 Nathan’s gallery, with no pictures of the actual contest
• The men’s record is not turned on in a picture of the Wall of Fame taken today

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The New York Daily News has a report on Kobayashi’s attempt to break Sonya Thomas’ IFOCE fruitcake record at Gabriella’s Restaurant. Kobayashi fell 6 ounces short of the mark set by the “Black Widow” in a 2003 contest (and Badlands Booker’s amount in that competition as well). Kobayashi said the density of the fruitcake, which he had never eaten before, made it difficult to consume quickly.

MSNBC has a picture. Cookie Jarvis also attended the event.

NBC San Diego has video from the event. 14 pounds of fruitcake were on hand.

update NBCNewYork has two videos. Cookie Jarvis and Badlands Booker ate alongside Kobayashi at the end of his attempt to get him past the threshold. Kobayashi did not resort to dunking the fruitcake even when the record appeared in doubt.

Sonya Thomas has a comment about Kobayshi’s record attempt on her news page.

Update #2 Kobayashi’s attempt was mentioned on ESPN Sportscenter. Here is a clip (20 seconds .9 MB)

kobayashiespn2008dec27.mp4

NY1 News also has a video clip

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Merry Christmas. Fans considering attending Kobayashi’s fruitcake record attempt in New York City tomorrow should be aware that the site of that event appears to have changed. The New York Daily News reports that Kobayashi will appear at Gabriela’s Restaurant on Columbus and 93rd.

The New York Times blog reported on Monday that the record attempt would take place in the plaza of Madison Square Garden.

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(from Gothamist) Commenters to the message board on ConeyIsland.com have noted that “Stores for Lease” signs have been placed above several businesses. One of the locations is the Nathan’s Famous on the boardwalk, which is not open year-round. This is not the site of the main Nathan’s Famous at Surf & Stillwell where the hot dog eating contest is held, so the competition should not be threatened by this action.

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The New York Times local news blog has a post about Friday’s fruitcake record attempt by Takeru Kobayashi. The event will take place at 11 am at the plaza of Madison Square Garden located at 34th Street and Seventh Avenue.

update The Gothamist blog entry says the event will take place at Gabriella’s Restaurant on Columbus and 93rd.

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(From “Luther” comment) IFOCE.com reports that Kobayashi will appear in New York City on December 26 to attempt to break the IFOCE fruitcake record and promote the Food Bank of New York City. The current record of of 4 lbs. 14.25 oz. in 10 minutes was set by Sonya Thomas in a 2003 contest in Buffalo where she edged out Eric “Badlands” Booker by less than an ounce.

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Actor Ryan Reynolds, author of an anti-competitive eating blog entry for the Huffington Post, is apparently not equally opposed to all activities which consume calories which could be redirected to the starving poor of the world. The website for People Magazine reports that the husband of Scarlett Johannson claimed on an episode of the Rachael Ray show that he ate almost 10,000 calories after finishing the New York City marathon.

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• Video from the Lewisville, TX tamale eating contest
• Picture of a woman in the East Village of NYC attempting a 10 hot dogs in 20 minutes challenge
• Virtual burger eating contests to take place during Los Angeles Laker games to promote Carl’s Jr.
• Article about the Big Jud burger eating challenge in Idaho. Up to 30 people a day complete the challenge and they have to rotate the pictures on the Wall of Fame. (No prizes are awarded)
• Tomoko Miyake turned 25 yesterday.

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(From NoLandGrab) A competitive eating hall of fame is one of three suggestions offered by the Atlantic Yards Report to the Imagine Coney initiative. The hall of fame would include a restaurant that would offer an eating challenge.

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Beautiful Brian has posted a video from his lunch today at the Todai sushi buffet with Crazy Legs Conti, Nate Biller and Leon Feingold.

Zach of Midtown Lunch was also present, and he will have a report on the meal tomorrow.

update Nov 12 – a Midtown Lunch blog entry and gallery have been posted

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A mini-documentary about Eric “Badlands” Booker produced by Richard Trammell for an NYU documentary class has been uploaded to youtube. Badlands talks about returning to competitive eating after a two year hiatus and also displays his collection of trophies.

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• The meat in Denny’s Beer Barrel’s big burgers gets a bad review
• Tim Rauscheder beer drinking video
• NYC wing eating contest tonight
• Gal Sone wins a poll of the Japanese celebrity people most want to see without makeup
• A large image of the Joey Chestnut baseball card
• Picture of victorious (and wet) Juliet Lee at Nashville qualifier
• Hatsuyo “the Witch” Sugawara wins the Morioko wanko soba noodle eating contest with 383 bowls in 15 minutes

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Beautiful Brian has posted a video commentary about the Coney Island benefit auction on Monday in which George Shea was honored. He received an Obama/Chestnut T-shirt which Joey Chestnut wore at Nathan’s which he will not wear in public.

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An auction will be held tonight at Rebel NYC to benefit Coney Island USA. George Shea will be honored for his efforts with Nathan’s hot dog eating contest and a judgeship for the 2009 Nathan’s finals is one of the items that will be auctioned off.

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• Video of Pat Bertoletti drinking beer with the help of a steak knife
• Jill Stoler and Jo Gavonne attend the Village Halloween Parade as the Chapmans (bounty hunter Duane “Dog” Chapman and his wife Beth, that is) More pictures are on Jill’s myspace
• Competitive eating themed “Beetle Bailey” comic strip (from Paul Barlow)
• Americus, GA hot dog eating contest report

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• BeautifulBrian.com has a commentary about Brad Sciullo
• Video of Famous Famiglia pizza eating contest
• Joey Chestnut mentioned during San Jose city council meeting
• Picture of Badlands Booker and Erik Denmark at the Nashville Krystal qualifier
• Boston area hot dog contest Oct 25 says it will offer $200 in cash prizes
• Report on Antioch, IL hot dog contest

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The prize breakdown for the Famous Famiglia pizza contest listed the 7th place prize as $500. Pat Philbin came in seventh and said he received $250 on a forum thread. Does anyone have the final list of prizes?

The only mention of the Famous Famiglia contest results on IFOCE.com appears to be the listing of winner on the contest calendar page.

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Juliet Lee has updated her WriteNow page with news of her trip to New York City to compete in the Famous Famiglia pizza eating contest and record her appearance on Guy Fieri’s “Big Show” on the Food Network.

Juliet also recorded a segment for ESPN’s E:60 news magazine program, which is expected to be televised on October 21.

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update #4 Gothamist blog entry NY1 news video
update #3 The Times of London has an article and a youtube video is available
update #2 The New York Daily News has an article with a picture of all the competitors

updateThe Urbanite blog has an entry about today’s Famous Famiglia pizza eating contest in Times Square which lists the top 3:

1. Joey Chestnut 45
2. Pat Bertoletti 43
3. Humble Bob Shoudt 41

These results are supported by comments from Wing Kong, Pat Philbin and anonymous.

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A new press release about Sunday’s Famous Famiglia pizza eating contest in Times Square is available. Joey Chestnut, Pat Bertoletti, Tim Janus and Crazy Legs Conti are the listed expected entrants, who were also mentioned in the September 11 press release.

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Gothamist reports that Crazy Legs Conti has started his attempt to break the current Guinness continuous movie watching world record of 120 hours 23 minutes. He is watching the movies with 5 other competitors, including the current record holder, in a temporary glass structure in Times Square. 10 minute bathroom breaks between movies are allowed, but sleeping is not. The winner will receive a $10,000 cash prize.

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• News video from the corny dog contest
• Jill Stoler has a contest report from a Brooklyn wing eating contest won by Will Millender
• MosesNews.com will stop covering competitive eating and offer political commentary and restaurant reviews
• News video from the Nashville Krystal qualifier
• Beautiful Brian has uploaded a song about the Nashville Krystal qualifier called “The Cheater” based The Who’s “The Seeker”
• Clips from Sunday’s Gluttonous King broadcast with Scandinavian subtitles

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