Stuffing Throats with Hot Dogs

Photo: Celine Asril

The chilli dog | Photo: Celine Asril

Happy Fourth of July! We watched the heavyweights of competitive eating stuff it down at Nathan's Famous at Coney Island today while being rained on. At the end of the competition (which Joey Chestnut won, with 61 'dogs in ten mins), all we wanted was a hot portion of bacon cheese fries ($4.05), chili dog ($4.49), a corn dog on a stick ($3.99) and a Coney Island lager (large, $7.25). Good product placement Nathan's -- that's a lot of processed foods we're going to have to undo. It was a meal worth having at least once though -- the chili is lightly sweet, slightly tart; processed cheese is smooth (although Shake Shack's was better), topped with crunchy but erring-on-the-side-of-tasteless fake bacon bits. 

Nathan's on Coney Island after the competition | Photo: Celine Asril