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Balls to the Wall to Eat That Pickle
By
tien mao
Published May 24, 2006
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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By
tien mao
Published May 24, 2006
Modified Mar 7, 2008
Share
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Gothamist likes its pickles, but we're not quite sure if we like them quite as much as Arnie "ChowHound" Chapman, who won Carnegie Deli's annual pickle eating competition. There's no information out there just yet about how many pickles he ate and exactly what kind. Because everyone knows that half-sour are easier to eat than those extra-sour pickles. ChowHound, who hails from Amarillo, Texas, supposedly trains by eating a head of cabbage and speed drinking a gallon of water every day. That's some serious training. Currently ranked at 24 by Speedeat (who knew), ChowHound is not affiliated with the IFOCE, but the AICE (Association of Independent Competitive Eaters). The fact that their are two rival competitive eating organizations makes Gothamist think of endless possible competitions. They can have all types of wrestling competitions - sumo, Greco-Roman, "professional", and jello (the loser would be forced to eat all the jello at the end). amNewYork has an excellent gallery of all the pickle gluttony. Note the florescent color of those shirts. Were they supposed to look like the pickles the contestants were eating or radioactive material?
Despite his pickle prowess, we doubt that ChowHound Chapman could ever stack up to Takeru Kobayashi. Then again, there's a chance that Kobayashi could fall this July 4th at the Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest. Last week, Joey Chestnut ate a whopping 50 hot dogs in 12 minutes, only 3.5 dogs short of Kobayashi's world record. Gothamist on Kobayashi's 53.5 and his victory last year, when he had a measly 49 hot dogs.
Update: amNY now has an article up on the event. Each contestant was given 5 pounds (about 50 pickles) of sour Kosher pickles, but none of them came close to that mark. ChowHound finished the competition with more than 3 pounds ingested.
Photo of Arnie "ChowHound" Chapman (left) by amNewYork/Lane Johnson
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