This video comes to us from reader Andrew, who attended a Super Bowl party at which professional eater Takeru Kobayashi was the hired entertainment. Here, Kobayashi accepts the challenge of eating an entire Domino's pizza in one minute, a feat he just barely manages to pull off. Kobayashi may be out of the…

First time I ever stepped onto Coney Island was to cover the Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest, which is a lot of capital letters to ascribe to an event in which men and women choke down mountains of tube steaks on national television, yes, but indeed an event you should attend to if you consider yourself a…

Originally published July 3, 2011.

Philadelphia's biggest eaters didn't stand a chance this morning against the superhuman maw of Takeru Kobayashi, who set a new Wing Bowl record by eating 337 chicken wings. The old record of 255 wings—set last year by Joey "Super" Squibb—was doomed by the end of the second round, making the final a fait accompli. Squibb

With the Empire State Building as a backdrop and a drag queen named Mimi Imfurst cracking jokes about stuffing wieners into Anderson Cooper's mouth, Takeru Kobayashi executed an improbably perfect "up yours" to the Nathan's hot dog eating contest, from which he's been barred over a long-running contractual dispute that…

We deputized AnimalNY's Bucky Turco to document the goings-on in Coney Island yesterday. This is what he came back with. ("Sorry, just woke up," he writes.)

Takeru Kobayashi, upset over a non-compete clause in his contract, started all kinds of trouble in Coney Island yesterday. He's facing charges of obstruction, resisting arrest, trespassing and disorderly conduct. If this is a stunt, the DA's not in on it. [AP]

Three years ago, the former proprietor hereabouts immersed himself in the world of moist sausage and watched as a proud America reclaimed what is rightfully hers: the world championship for cramming hot dogs in one's distended mouth.

Is there anything more distinctly American than celebrating our independence by holding a contest to see who could consume the most processed meat? Photographer Erin Siegal and I ventured out to Coney Island to take it all in.