Lessons learned from this trip:
-I would be worth the extra money to take a direct flight after a night of mayhem.
-US Air Shuttle gives free beer and wine.
-In the future, if it is 100 degrees, sunny and no breeze I will not be standing outside for 5 hours.
-There is no really good place to see the contest at the actual contest. Honestly, you’re probably better off watching it on TV... but that’s no fun :(
-You know you are a special breed of girl when you spend a weekend in New York with the gals NOT drinking martinis and going shopping, but instead spent it watching an eating contest and tossing back tequila.
-It is funny when you get personally introduced to others as 'Hungry Sisters' and
'Silly America'
-We (Sadie, Jamie, and Carrie) can actually go on a trip without getting into one single fight!
This year we opted out of the ‘Great American Road Trip’ and flew to New York City for the event of the year: the Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest. Lots of controversy surrounded the event this year, from rumors of cheating to contract disputes.
What we did:
We got to NYC on Friday around lunch, and immediately set out for some pizza. We found a little hole in the wall pizza place and it was quite delicious. After walking around Times Square, we headed back to the hotel to meet
Valerie, our roommate for the weekend! None of us really had any plans going into the trip, so we just kind of played it by ear.
That afternoon, we decided to go out to Hoboken to find the Cake Boss, but our plan failed. I think a show was being filmed and the line was really long to get in…so we saw the outside of
Carlo’s Bakery. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to eat any of the Cake Boss’s baked goods, BUT
our hotel had free warm chocolate chip cookies waiting for our consumption in the lobby, and that was awesome.
Friday evening, we tried to go to
Bamn, an automat, but it ended up being closed. We did find a good little burger restaurant
Mark, that has a simple menu: sliders, fries, and drinks. They even have a Guinness milkshake but we didn't indulge. We also and had our first
Pinkberry experience in East Village, so the night ended up being pretty awesome! We even walked into a filming of ‘Curb your Enthusiasm’ around Washington Square, so that was pretty cool too.
(...we really are hungry. always...)
Saturday, we had our NYC tourist-y day and tried to do as many cheap/free things as we could. We rode the Staten Island Ferry (for free), we had a picnic at Union Square park (cheap), we toured the
Brooklyn Brewery (free), and we sampled Brooklyn Beers (not free but delicious). We were going to go mess around in Central Park and find scenes from Home Alone 2 and Enchanted (free), but we were tired, so we just sat and watched people in the park. We met up with Valerie again and we went to the hotel, basked in the glory of the air conditioner. That night we ate at this Mexican restaurant,
Cancun, and wandered around Times Square.
Sunday, we woke up around 7, had some breakfast at the hotel, and set out for Coney Island. We got there around 8:45. We got close to the front, but our location was pretty crappy. We were around some interesting folks: two crazy dudes who kept invading our space and some Jersey Boys with their guidette girlfriends. You probably saw them if you watched the broadcast on TV. They were cool and all but we couldn’t really see around them. By about 10, it started getting a little bit miserable; it got hot. Really hot. I expect this weather here in North Carolina, but not in New York! I guess all of ya’ll northerners got a taste of what it’s been like here for about a month and a half.
Anyway, the pre-contest festivities occurred--neat eating contest, circus things, trampoline people, Badland's rapping, etc. (you know, the usual...). The contest started and was over before we knew it (also...the usual). Joey Chestnut won by eating 54 hot dogs and buns. To be completely honest, the contest was kind of anti climactic this year. We all knew who would win since Kobayashi was out of the picture. Speaking of, at the end of the contest, while we were still standing there watching, Kobayashi jumped on the stage and got arrested, and somehow WE MISSED IT. THE WHOLE DERN THING. We didn’t even find out that this went down until like 15 minutes later.
We headed over to Ruby’s to sit down and finally feel a cool breeze...and finally found out about Kobayashi's escapade. When we got there the power was off and it was actually cooler outside than inside (and it was like 96 degrees outside). The power came back on while we were there (yay!) and a crazy drunk man gave Jamie money to play some jamz on the jukebox (yay!), I drank the most refreshing $2.00 bottle of water of my life (yay!), and all became right with the world once again.
Sunday night: the after party! What can I say that wasn’t said last year? It was fun and is always nice to get to hang out with people you only get to see two or three times a year. Tequila shots flowed like water and we supposedly walked back to the subway like zombies while cursing the name of Joey Chestnut who yelled at Valerie. haha. It was (apparently) a fun trip to the back hotel. The next morning's McDonalds brunch of chicken nuggets and french fries were just what we needed to recover from the night o' fun and prep for the day o' travel. The flights home kind of sucked; it was a little shaky from NYC to D.C. and then we had to layover for three hours in D.C. yuck.
We had an awesome time in the big apple, but were all three pretty glad to be back in home. Being in somewhere as crazy and busy as New York City really makes you appreciate simple, small-town life in the south....but, of course, we do hope to be back next year!
Thoughts on Kobayashi:
From the beginning of the whole contract dispute, I have always had thoughts that this might just be a publicity stunt. I've watched enough professional wrestling to know a 'work' when I see one. I mean, when you think about it, and as much as I hate to say it, the whole Kobayashi controversy was what made the contest; what everybody was talking about the next day. With the whole resistance to the police officers and all of these 'Free Kobi' websites, it almost seems too dramatic to be true. But a small part of me thinks it is true. Ahh. I don't know. I guess only time will tell and we'll see how this all unfolds!
Anybody out there? We've been MIA in the blogging and eating world for a while now. I know, I know, we suck.. especially me (Jamie) at this blog, but with good reasoning! As of this Saturday, I will be a college graduate! After 16+ years of my life and the past 3 summers being filled with school, and papers, and homework, we will be celebrating, HungrySisters style with a Pub Crawl of all of the finer Asheville establishments. Did I ever mention that Asheville is BeerCity, USA? I've been spoiled in my adult life by living in such an awesome city with delicious brews. I live within walking distance of the Asheville Pizza and Brewing Company which has delicious food, awesome beer and is a movie theater: the perfect place for a date! Their Asheville Amber is my absolute favorite beer of all time. Then there is the French Broad Brewery that I just visited for the first time this past weekend. (The picture to the right are just about the only type of picture messages sent between Sadie, Carrie and myself). This is a picture of the ESB, but then after that beer I tried the Porter. This porter might be in the running for my new favorite beer. It has a smooth taste of chocolate, and by now you probably know that we LOVE chocolate anything.
