NYC 2010

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! 

The rest of our pictures: NYC 2010 Photo Album

Related Items:
Carrie's thoughts and her new travel blog

Silly America & Val's Photos/Blog

Our favorite video commentary of the Kobayashi arrest

Day 6: 4th of July!

Yet another early start for us on our trip, but it was easy to get out of bed knowing what was to come on this 4th of July. Bagels in hand, we got on the subway again for the long journey to Coney Island. We got to Surf & Stillwell around 8:40 Saturday morning, trying to scope out a good spot to stand for today's momentous event. Gates were set up all around the stage area so no one was really allowed to get close to the stage. Around 9:30 security opened up those gates to let in the masses and we fought our way to the front like crazy women fight for a free snow globe on the day after Thanksgiving. We ended up getting spots right in the spray zone and were surround by fans from all over the country who soon became our friends for the day. A couple from California right in front of us came to cheer on Kobayashi. Some Pennsylvania boys beside of us were die hard Joey Chestnut fans who came to NYC without telling their parents, hoping they wouldn't be spotted ESPN.

Nathan's did a good job of keeping us entertained for the 4 hours we stood there in the hot sun before the contest began even though they passed out thundersticks. Ever since last year's Krystal Square Off I have decided that thundersticks have to be the most annoying thing ever invented. Anyway, some old school funk type band played for a while and there were a few circus acts performed on the stage including jump ropers, weenie dogs who can do tricks, and a contortionist/gymnast type person. George Shea also did a pretty sweet Michael Jackson tribute--moonwalking and doing the MJ lean.


One of the best parts of the pre-show was Badlands Booker's rap about saving Coney Island. It kind of got down right political; people were yelling "TAKE US NOW" right along with Badlands and everybody seemed to get into it. It was awesome to be there right in the middle of it. Badlands Booker: if you read this you should totally post a recording of that song online.

Finally, at high noon, the big show had begun. The bunnettes came out on stage and it was cool to see some of them after reading the bunnette boot camp stuff online. We had been reading Zoe's blog and were glad she made it as a bunnette this year. Next, the eaters were announced. The eaters only had one introduction this year, not really giving them a lot of time to flaunt their stuff on stage. The intros actually seemed a little rushed. Pat Bertoletti came to the contest dressed as Tony Clifton, and as a long time Andy Kaufman fan, I thought it was an excellent idea! The crowds screamed for the favorites as they were announced, and everyone was excited to get the show on the road. We did notice that one eater was missing--Rich LeFevre. We didn't find out until a few days later that he was absent because of an illness. The judges were brought out and Beautiful Brian Seiken was judging right in front of us and gave Jamie his camera to take some pictures for him.

Around 12:40 the countdown started and the eaters began eating the first few minutes were chaotic to watch, not knowing where to look. It was exciting to be right in front of the stage, but it was also hard to see around the judges. Joey and Kobayashi looked to be neck & neck throughout most of the competition and Eater X definitely held his own as well. From where were standing it was hard to see Pat Bertoletti but we knew he had to be close as well. We had a really good view of Hall Hunt, Juliet Lee, and Humble Bob so we cheered them on from our spot in the spray zone.


In the end, Joey Chestnut won the contest eating 68 hot dogs and buns in ten minutes, Takeru Kobayashi in 2nd with 64.5, Pat Bertoletti in 3rd with 55, and Eater X in 4th with 53. Sonya "The Black Widow" Thomas also set a new female record eating 41 hot dogs and buns.

After the contest, Jamie managed to get a left over hot dog and we went to the boardwalk. It was nice to finally sit down after standing up for five hours. We got a little sunburned during the contest, but that wasn't something a few beers at the after party couldn't fix. It was fun getting to hang out with some eaters and friends after the contest and we even met some people we hadn't met in person (Steakbellie, Crazy Leg's mom, & others). We even got a personal invite to the after-after party by none other than Crazy Legs Conti himself.

By 3:00, our stomachs were telling us it was time to go, and we headed back to Manhattan. We made a mad rush to McDonald's because we hadn't eaten in like 8 hours and nothing seemed more delicious at the time than a double cheese burger and a large chocolate shake. Bellies full and rested up, we got ready and went out to the after-after party. The night was filled with drinking many drinks, making new friends, blowing in a breathalyzer, and doing our best drunk white-girl dance. A fun night was had by all.

Sunday morning at 7:14am, we boarded our train and rode from Penn Station to Trenton, Trenton to Philly, and drove the long haul from Philadelphia to North Carolina, arriving back home Sunday night. Round trip, we spent 986 miles driving in a car and probably 200 miles on a train. Totally worth it--I would do it again tomorrow if I could.

Being at Coney Island on July 4th was the most American way I could ever imagine spending Independence Day. This will definitely be the first of many more July 4th trips to New York City!

For more pictures, from our trip click here!

We've got a few videos from our trip that I have yet to upload, so be sure to check back for those.

Thanks for reading, ya'll. See ya at Krystal on September 27th (...or maybe before, who knows)!
--Sadie

King's Dominion/Funnel Cake Contest Trip Report

4:45 am came very early Saturday morning, but it was easy to wake up knowing the fun day that was to come. Jamie and I left Mooresville, N.C. around 5:15 and set out to our destination of the day: Kings Dominion in Doswell, VA. Our drive through the great states of North Carolina and Virginia was very pleasant—no traffic problems at all.

Our first stop on the trip was at Biscuitville . Biscuitville is a chain of 52 restaurants, located in North Carolina and Virginia that serves (obviously) breakfast biscuits. Although it is a North Carolina chain, this was our first time visiting a Biscuitville since there isn’t one in our hometown. We’ve always wanted to go to one, though, and decided to seize this opportunity and stop for a quick bite to eat. I ordered a sausage biscuit and Jamie got the bacon, egg, & cheese along with a side of grits. Biscuitville’s claim to fame is that they make fresh biscuits from scratch every 20 minutes. Where we ate (in Burlington, NC), there was a window at the front of the restaurant where you could see the biscuit lady actually rolling out the dough…nice touch! Our breakfast was delightful and we would definitely stop at a Biscuitville in the future, however, if I had to choose between here and Bojangles, I would pick BoJ’s.

Back on the road, we stopped two more times, once at the I-85 Virginia State Line Welcome Center, which was a very nice rest stop, and again in South Hill, V.A. to get gas and use the facilities. The South Hill gas station was a peculiar little place…the only thing around the exit was this one gas station and a Mexican restaurant. Luckily, we were here to not only take a bathroom break but to make a purchase as well because there were signs all over the doors that said “It costs to flush the toilet, you must make a purchase to use the bathroom, etc.” Out of all of the convenience store bathrooms I’ve visited, I have never seen anything like that in my life. Very interesting. This was our last stop until we arrived in Doswell.

We got to Kings Dominion around 10:45 a.m. and went to guest services to pick up our tickets. Many thanks to John at Kings Dominion who hooked us up with some complimentary “press” tickets to cover the events of the day. Once in the park, Jamie and I decided to squeeze in a few rides before the Funnel Cake Eating Contest at 1:00. We planned on riding Dominator but the line looked too long and we didn’t want to risk anything. We moved on to Anaconda and only waited for about 10 minutes before we were able to ride. This is an older coaster so it definitely threw riders around a little. The first drop was awesome, though, and the ride itself was worth the short wait in line.

By this time it was getting close to 12:30 so we made our way to the Eiffel Tower, where the Funnel Cake Eating Contest was to be held. A crowd had already started to gather and many of the eaters were already there mingling. Ryan Nerz was announcing and was looking pretty fly in his gray suit and orange tie…yeah I bet ya’ll didn’t know we did fashion commentary as well. This was the first time we’d seen him be the M.C. so that was cool since we’ve both read Eat This Book. Badlands Booker busted out some flows before the contest began and got the audience pumped up by rapping about the Sweet Science of Competitive Eating.


By around 12:45 all of the eaters had arrived except Sonya Thomas so Ryan had to stall a little to see if she would show up in time. After 1:00, the Black Widow still hadn’t shown, so he decided start without her. After all of the eaters were introduced on stage and began filling up their cups with their respective beverages, Ryan began announcing the rules of the game. Each plate of funnel cake had been weighed in at 2 pounds. The funnel cake was baked, not fried, and contained no powdered sugar on top. The contest would be 10 minutes long and no dunking would be allowed. Wait, WHAT? No dunking? The look on a few eaters’ faces was pretty priceless. I’m not sure if Ryan accidentally said that, if he was just joking, or if that was the original plan, but he quickly retracted the statement and said “dunking is okay”. Just as the contest was about to begin, Sonya Thomas arrived. Looking very cute but a little disoriented, Sonya was running late because of traffic, but she did make it on time to compete!

A few minutes later, the countdown began and the eaters were off. Strings of funnel cake drenched in water/kool-aid/Gatorade/whatever were shoved into the mouths of the eaters. Pat and Joey seemed to be pretty neck and neck the entire contest. About two minutes before the contest was to be over Joey broke the record for funnel cake consumption. As the last minute approached, the eaters looked pretty relieved it was almost over. The contest ended, all of the funnel cake debris was picked up off the ground and wringed out of the cups, placed on the plates to be weighed with the remaining cakes. The King’s Dominion officials took a while to tabulate up the weight of the consumption and finally came to the conclusion that the totals for Joey Chestnut and Pat Bertoletti were too close to call. There would have to be an eat-off.



The rules of the eat off: The first to eat either two pounds of funnel cake or whoever ate the most funnel cake in two minutes would win. Both competitors looked a little worried about having to stuff even more funnel cake in their bodies, but they accepted the challenge and the eat-off began. In the end, Joey Chestnut ended up winning with 7.3 total pounds of funnel cake. It was a good contest. We’d never gotten to see an eat-off in person, so that was pretty exciting! In the end, Hall Hunt came in 4th place eating 3.8 pounds, Humble Bob in 3rd with 4.8 pounds, and Pat Bertoletti ended up eating 7 pounds. Dora the Explorer awarded the top four winners were awarded a big blue check, signed by Sponge Bob.

After the contest was over, Jamie and I left the park and set up our tent at the King’s Dominion Campground. The campground itself was pretty cool, they had a pool and a little ice cream booth, and it was the perfect little place to camp while visiting King’s Dominion. Once we set up or campsite, we went back over to the park and rode Dominator (a floorless roller coaster), which was awesome and then decided to head over to Volcano: The Blast Coaster—the #1 thing we were hoping to ride. The line was pretty long, around an hour wait, but we decided to stick it out because we really wanted to ride. We saw Pat B. and Nasty Nate waiting in the line, so I guess eating the funnel cake didn’t stop them from taking advantage of their day at the park. The ride itself was definitely worth the wait and was our favorite ride of the day. We tried to go hit up the water park but it was pretty crowded, so we just went back to the campground and enjoyed the pool there for a while.

By this point, it was getting late and we were getting really hungry. After checkin out the Doswell scene, we quickly found out that if we wanted something to eat, our few options would be Burger King, Denny’s, or the restaurant at the truck stop. Doswell isn’t the most happening place in the world, that’s for sure. Craving pizza, we decided to go down the road a few miles to Ashland and ended up eating at Tony’s Grill and Pizza Restaurant, ordered a mushroom pizza, and devoured it in like 5 minutes. Ashland was a fun little town; if we ever go back to King’s Dominion I think we’ll stay at either one of the hotels there or maybe even Richmond. Lots more to choose from in regards to food and entertainment. It was starting to get dark and we were pretty tired so we called it an early night and slept to the sounds of crickets chirping in our secluded little campsite. It was nice to finally get a little rest.

Wow… I didn’t mean for this to get this long…! Anyway, to sum it all up, our trip was really fun, the roller coasters did not disappoint, and the contest was quite entertaining. We drove about 630 miles round trip and made it back home around 1:30 Sunday afternoon. It was a Memorial Day weekend well spent.

Upcoming Plans for the Summer:
-Nathan’s Qualifier in Charlotte, NC—June 13th (the only person we know of in the contest is Super Paul Barlow, anyone else going?)

-Las Vegas, June 14th—Honeymoon/anniversary/gambling/eating/drinking/fun

-July 4th—Big road trip planned that involves Philadelphia, Jamie’s first trip to the Big Apple, and of course Coney Island. Stay tuned!

We'll try to upload some more pics to our blog, but if you wanna see more, check out Sadie's facebook.

See ya next time!

--Sadie and Jamie

Happy Birthday, Joey Chestnut!

Krystal Square Off 5

Re-Occurring Themes of our Krystal Square Off 5 Weekend:
gasoline, food, meeting cool people, and oh yeah… KOBAYASHI!

Our journey to Chattanooga started on Friday morning when Trey and I left Mooresville in the pouring rain to head towards the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains. Well, I guess the real journey started a few days before when we went through the emotional torment of deciding whether the gas crisis in Charlotte was going to keep us away from Chatty…obviously it did not.

Anyway... Trey and I picked up Jamie in Asheville around noon on Friday and set out on our second annual expedition to the Krystal Square Off. Since the Asheville Krystal had recently closed, we had to snack in the car to hold our hunger until we found a Krystal—which to our luck, would only be about an hour away in Newport, TN. The Krystal in Newport was cool--kind of like a Cook Out or Checkers if you are familiar with those--there was no dining room and there was a drive in on both sides of the restaurant. Bottom line of our lunch stop: We ate lunch in Newport, God's Storehouse is in Newport (see pictures), we found a gas station in Newport, the rain stopped in Newport and the sun started to shine a little. We love this town!

After a few hours of driving, we finally arrived in Chattanooga and checked into the Day's Inn and tried to figure out how we would spend our time in the city. After checking out some websites (chattanoogafun/eatfeats/etc.) we just decided to have a fun night out in Chattanooga on Friday. There was some motorcycle thing going on Friday night so we saw what that was all about out on our way to the Big River Grille/Brewery for some food and drinks. The food was ok, but the Oktoberfest beer was divine.

On Saturday, we went to the Krystal on Cherokee Ave (which is the oldest Krystal still open, we think) and ate breakfast and decided to explore Chattanooga some more. We found this cultural fest going on near the water front and spent some time hanging out in the North Shore district of the city, which is really eclectic and interesting. The highlight of Saturday, however, was going to the Hixson Krystal (a few minutes outside of Chattanooga) for an eater autograph session + some free food samples!

We were pretty freaking excited going into the autograph session, because we knew that the time had come for us to finally meet Takeru Kobayashi. We've met most of the other eaters before at some point in time, but this was the big one, the one we have been wanting to see in real-life for a long time; we were finally going to meet the guy who ignited our interest in competitive eating. We got to the Hixson Krystal before the eaters did so we just hung out and sampled some milkquakes and stuff. We when they arrived, some pictures were taken and then Kobayashi, Pat Bertoletti, Joey Chestnut, and Humble Bob signed some autographs. We got in the autograph line (ok...we kind of started the line I guess…) and met Takeru Kobayashi and even got him to sign our Kobayashi trading cards. It was pretty thrilling. We also got to see the other eaters—-who we also really love :-).

One of the turning points of the day, though, was when I met Tiffany, who works for Krystal. Tiffany was helping with the autograph session in Hixson, and coincidentally, was the person who was in charge of the bunnettes. I was able to talk to her at the autograph session and asked her who I would be flipping for at the Square Off. She asked me who I’d like to flip for, I said Kobayashi, and the rest is history. September 27th, 2008, I became Takeru Kobayashi’s official 2008 Krystal Square Off Bunnette and I will forever live my life by the mantra: ask and ye shall receive.

I spent the rest of the day doing whatever I could to get my mind off of the Krystal Square Off because I was really getting anxious and nervous about being on stage (and behind a legendary eater, nonetheless). So, we ate some DELICIOUS pizza at Lupi’s downtown, had some Chocolate Therapy at Ben & Jerry’s, and checked out a band, Harper, on the waterfront. The band was actually pretty cool—the lead singer was Australian and played a didgeridoo, which ruled. We called it an early night and watched Sister Act 2 on TV. I doped up on some Advil PM and slept like a baby.

Sunday morning, Trey, Jamie, and I went to the City Café (adjacent to the Days Inn) for our second annual traditional Pre-KSO Breakfast of Chocolate Chip Pancakes. They were quite possibly some of the best pancakes I’ve ever had in my life, but I was pretty anxious to get the day started so I couldn’t finish them. Jamie, the president of the Clean Plate Club/amateur competitive eater, ate all of hers. After breakfast, we checked out of the hotel, packed up the car, and made our way down to Ross' Landing.

I hung out with Jamie and Trey for a while, scoping out the activities of the event, and went with them to find an up-close seat for the contest. After we sat down, we realized we were right behind Val, another competitive eating fan, who drove 10 hours just for the contest! It was nice to finally meet her in person after reading her stuff and looking at her pictures for a while. It was also fun to hear/see the Marshall Tucker Band play before the contest (ok it was also fun to see the mullet-clad MTB fans there too. Can I get a hell yeah for southern rock!?)

My bunnette duties officially started at noon; I helped hand out pompoms and thundersticks and balloons to the eating fans. Around one, we went and met the eaters on the water front to cheer them on as they walked to the stage for their introductions. I thought it was really cool that they came in by boat...it just kind of made me concerned for the ones who may get motion sick. ah well, it probably wasn't a long boat ride.

One of the highlights of the pre-contest was Badlands Booker's rapping! Until Sunday, I'd never gotten to see Badlands perform in real life so it was cool to see him from backstage. We were really excited to meet him too, and I must say...he is one cool dude.

The contest itself is all kind of a blur to me; it came and went so fast. I mean, at one point I was standing in the line getting ready to get on stage after the eater introductions, and the next thing I knew, I was up there flipping numbers to 86 (which was later reduced to 84). Thank goodness my wonderful husband Trey was there to video. It was so awesome to be on stage, though, being right in the middle of the action. Joey ended up winning, Pat came in second, and Kobayashi came in third. I was disappointed Kobayashi lost, but honestly, the whole thrill of just being there really overcame the disappointment. From what I could tell from behind the eaters, it seemed to me that Joey was pushing through faster and was on the track to winning throughout the whole contest. I was surprised, however, that no one beat the 100 mark; I expect to see 110+ burgers eaten next year!

After the contest was over, Trey, Jamie, Val, and I hung around to take a few more pictures. We also got to meet Rick Russo and his wife Sherri, SuperPaul, and a few others we hadn't yet met in real life. It sucked that we had to run off so fast after the contest; we'd have loved to spend another night in Chattanooga, but we had to make the 7 hour drive back home, back to the real world once again.

Overall, it was a great weekend; maybe the best weekend I've had in a while, but how could it not be good when it is based entirely around the mass consumption of burgers? This weekend couldn't have been possible without the fine folks at the Krystal restaurants we stopped at throughout the weekend, Brian and Tiffany who hooked me up with the bunnette gig, the people at Ford for building a car that can take us to many eating contests on decent gas mileage, and most importantly, Jamie and Trey my two compadres/fellow fans/sister & husband being the best travel buddies ever. I already can't wait until next year! Check back in with us soon, maybe Jamie will post with her opinion/thoughts from an audience point of view :-)

Sadie

BBQ

School started last week and it was nice having that light at the end of the tunnel, knowing that at 3:00 on Friday, I'd be leaving school to go to Myrtle Beach. The trip down was nice, and once we got through Charlotte, traffic wasn't bad at all. We didn't get to North Myrtle until it was dark, though, so we just rode around and looked at stuff on the way to our destination. Much to the delight of the boys, our aunt's new beach house was about a 5 minute walk from the Crazy Horse. Anyway, by the time we got to the house, everyone was tired so we all just went to bed.

Saturday was the big day of the contest/festival so we tried to get to Market Common around noon. The Market Common is this fairly new complex with like condos and restaurants and bars and apartments and stuff, and I'd never been before so it was fun to see what all new things had been built. We walked around the festival some and smelled a lot of BBQ being cooked, but it was just too dang hot to walk around for a long time...so we went into Roy and Sid's and drank away the hour until it was time to watch some sandwiches being eaten.

Around 1:30, we went to the contest stage and found ourselves a nice place on the grass, right in front. The Pulled Pork Sandwich eating contest started on time at 2:00, and the contestants were announced on stage.
A few highlights/things I remember from the introductions:
-The only woman in the contest was a local lady(I was sad to see that Juliet Lee did not make it to Myrtle Beach) and the emcee said the exact same thing he said about Jamie when she did the MB Nathan's Qualifier (the whole "As God is my witness" Gone With The Wind speech thing)
-The song played as Pat Bertoletti came onstage was The Marshall Tucker Band's song Can't You See. I love that damn song.

The contest was 10 minutes long, which surprised me, as I assumed it would just be 8. For a while, Humble Bob seemed to be in the lead, but at the end Joey ate the most with 49 pulled pork sandwiches. All of the contestants did really well and it was exciting to get to be there to see it happen. The sandwiches looked pretty tasty; I think if I could eat anything competitively one of my top choices would be pulled pork BBQ sandwiches. Unfortunately, I didn't even eat a single sandwich at the whole festival. Fortunately, on Saturday night, we went out to eat at Hoskin's Restaurant where I did, finally, get to eat a BBQ sandwich...and it was delicious.

The rest of the weekend was filled with sun, beach, syringe-filled jello shots, the crazy horse, lots of food, and even more relaxation; the only thing missing was my little hungrysister, Jamie.

p.s. we are so f-ing excited for Krystal we can hardly stand it!

--Sadie

a covered dish meal of eating.

As a result of finding Kobayashi and Badlands Booker in my Economics text book, and this article which I found on eatfeats.com, I decided to write my weekly-assigned economic article analysis on it. I was more than excited to finally utilize my love of competitive eating in school work (something I have tried to find the oppurtunity to legitimately do for months now). Turns out, my professor liked it as well and I earned my first perfect score out of the 6 analyses I've turned in. I suppose I'll be trying to find more ways to write about competitve eating in the future. I've been trying to find some way to incorporate it into a future research paper on some aspect of the ancient world, but I can't think of anything that could suffice for six pages of comparison.

In other news, I went to Arby's yesterday and, as usual, split a DELICIOUS chocolate turnover. Readers, if you have not tried these yet, they are AMAZING. I could probably eat 20 of them and not even realize it, yet for my stomach, legs and thigh's sake, I chose the healthy route and just split one. Yesterday's turnover was exceptionally chocolatey and delectable. (If anyone didn't know this, an Arby's chocolate turnover is a flaky pastry with gooey decadent HERSHEY'S CHOCOLATE filling the inside. Not only is it a choclate turnover but a Hershey's chocolate turnover, making it all the more amazing.)

There are a few times in life when you know destiny is on your side. Those times for me, are when I am bored out of my mind, flipping through channels during breaks of reality tv marathons and come across the food network and see none other than Joey "Jaws" Chestnut. It was an episode of Unwrapped that I had never seen before (it could have been new, but I'm not really sure); and it was about hot dogs. There was Joey with his room full of trophey's and belts and I was just plain excited to come across the food network at just the right time. This seems to happen to me quite a bit. One weekend on MTV, there was a 24 hour takeover by the crazy folks of Jackass. I just so happened to turn to that channel to see "Eater X" Tim Janus, Artuo Rios Jr., and Crazy Legs Conti (I believe... it's been a while so i could be forgetting who it was) eating hot dogs in a competition agains Bam Margera's dad, Phil. It's just great when competitive eating simply falls into your metaphorical lap.

Speaking of hot dogs, I am excited to know that Charlotte, NC is a definate spot for a Nathan's qualifier. It would be amazing to actually compete in it. I know I'm definately not up to par to make it to the superbowl of Competitive eating on the 4th, but I would be satisfied with being at the table in Charlotte and eating as many Nathan's Hot dogs that I possibly could. I hope they post the dates soon; the wait is killing me!

KSO Pics part DEUX:

Trey w/JAWS!

HungrySister Jamie with Pat!
Sadie with her hero: THE BLACK WIDOW!

Trey, Sadie, CRAZY LEGS CONTI, Logan, and Jamie before the contest

Eat those KRYSTALS!!!

A job well done.

Krystal Square Off--2007

Hey! We are Sadie and Jamie, the HungrySisters. For years, we have been obsessed with food. I know, it is somewhat weird, but we really do love food. Food is our hobby, our joy, our entertainment. We like to eat and cook and watch people eat and cook. Food has always been a big part of our lives--which is why we decided to create a blog. A food blog.

One of our biggest food obsessions is Dairy Queen. We are absolutely, 100% addicted to Dairy Queen Blizzards and could both eat them for every meal if it wouldn't have such a tremendous effect on our waistlines. Someday, we dream of owning our own Dairy Queen franchise and bringing Blizzards into the lives of those who just don't experience them enough.

Our other big food obsession is Competitive Eating. We have been following the Nathan's Hot Dog contest for years. We've seen the documentaries on TV and have witnessed a few amateur contests. We recently attended the Krystal Square off in Chattanooga, which was one of the highlights of both of our food-driven lives. We read all of the websites and blogs, and keep up with the IFOCE rankings. Competitive Eaters are our favorite athletes. We dream of attending the Nathan's Hot Dog Contest next July, and if we can save up enough money this year, we plan on making that dream come true.

The next few entries will probably be used to update on food events of our lives from the past--because some are very noteworthy but occurred in real life before we decided to create a foodblog.

The following post was copied and pasted from Jamie's post on our Family's Yahoo Group:

October 29, 2007
Last night, Sadie, Trey, Logan and I got back from our journey to Chattanooga to see the World Krystal Burger eating championship, the second best eating competition in the world! We were excited to say the least.

Saturday morning, Sadie and Trey picked up Logan and me from UNCA, and we set off to go, stopping at the Krystal in Asheville for breakfast in order to set the mood for the trip. I ate an original BREAKFAST SCRAMBLER which was delicious and Sadie ate a Chicken Biscuit--the chicken was dipped in sausage gravy. Delicious.

On the way to Chattanooga, we stopped for lunch at another Krystal (right outside of Knoxville) where all four of us enjoyed Krystal Burgers. We also sampled some of the new chicken sandwiches. When we got back on the interstate, we saw a sign for Mayfeild Dairy Farms and tours, so we decided to stop there. We took a free tour of the factory, where they filled the milk cartons, made ice cream etc. We didn't get free ice cream, but we bought some and it was delicious. I had a cookies and cream milkshake and Sadie had a scoop of birthday cake ice cream.

We finally got back on the road and eventually arrived in Chattanooga. We checked into our hotel, which to our surprise was right beside the Krystal Headquarters! We stayed in the Days Inn Rivergate. Great location--right downtown--and the price was right. We explored the town and rode around just for fun on the free city-transit buses. BTW, CHATTANOOGA RULES.

We ate dinner, not at Krystal, though. We went to TGI Fridays instead. Our waiter, though, was wearing a Krystal Square Off T-shirt. We ended up watching part of Road Trip on TBS and fell asleep pretty early.

The next morning we were ready for the festivities to begin. We ate breakfast at this awesome cafe connected to our hotel. Sadie and I both ordered Chocolate Chip Pancakes. After breakfast, we checked out of the hotel and walked to the riverside where the contest was to take place. We arrived about 2 hours early, but we didn't have anything better to do, so we watched the Krystal People set up the area for the contest. While we were waiting, we met Crazy Legs Conti!!!! It was the coolest thing ever. It was our first encounter meeting a real-live competitive eater; one who we have seen on TV many, many times. Very exciting!!!

At 12, they opened everything up and began serving free Krystals and apple turnovers (which were delicious). We ate and walked around to the different games and activities that were taking place. We played blackjack and all won free Krystal coupons (and I won a free t shirt for getting 21 :]) and we bought fan t shirts to commemorate the day. Eventually, we had all gotten free t shirts by playing games--in addition to the ones we bought.

Around 1:30, we knew it was time for the eaters to come in and sign autographs, and we seriously couldn't wait to meet all of the eaters. We started the line as the eaters paraded in convertibles down the street. They came to the autograph stand one by one, starting with the ones who ate the least burgers to qualify.

Trey, Logan, Sadie and I were completely star stuck as we went down the line and talked to the celebrities. We got all of their autographs, and took some pictures with a few of them. They were all really nice, friendly people. I guess its because they are just normal folks who like to eat. When the competition was over they had to go back to their normal lives.

Anyway, after getting autographs, we got seats 2 rows back and waited for everything to start. There was an amateur contest with teams of two trying to see who could eat 12 krystals the fastest. Logan and I tried to enter, but they chose the contestants at random, what a letdown.

Finally, the cameras were on and the contestants came onto the stage! George Shay, who is one of the coolest men in the world, did a great time of "prepping the audience" before the contest began.

The contest started and it was pretty intense; everyone had hopes of breaking the 100 mark, because last years champion, Kobayashi, won with eating 97 Krystals. Speaking of Kobayashi, we were pretty let down that he wasn't at the contest. He initially got us interested in the sport of competitive eating. Maybe we'll get to see him at Nathan's in July.

Anyway, the crowning moment of the contest was when Joey Chestnut broke the 100 mark and stopped for a brief moment to smile. That was just awesome. Joey ended up winning the contest, eating 103 burgers, followed by Humble Bob in 2nd place, and Pat Bertoletti in 3rd.

After the eight minutes were up, we walked back to where the eaters were and talked to a few of them as we ate some left-over Krystals. It was a day I don't believe any of us will forget. The coolest part about it was that we could just go back stage after the contest and see our heroes, the gurgitators we admire and respect. There was no security to keep us away. Competitive eating is the best sport in the universe.

On the way home, we stopped at 3 more Krystals between Chattanooga and Asheville. We couldn't wait to get home and watch the ESPN recording and the video Sadie made of the trip.

Next Stop: NATHANS? WE HOPE SO.