A few Grub Street alums made the weekend papers — Recent New York Diet subject Crazy Legs Conti, in case you were wondering, placed 11th in the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest by downing twenty-four dogs (a personal best). Mark Ibold, former member of Pavement and bartender at Great Jones Café, rocked out with Sonic Youth at Battery Park. Santogold, who is playing SummerStage on July 20 and touring with Coldplay, spent an evening with the Times at Castro’s, the Fort Greene cantina known for its garden that she praised in her New York Diet. Donatella Arpaia, another New York Diet alum (you’ll recall her Hot Pocket habit), tells the Sunday Post about “her New York.” The feature isn’t online, but, food-wise, she singles out her dad’s place Fiorino, Bouchon Bakery’s quiche (“it’s like 1,000 calories and if you want to cheat on your diet it’s so worthwhile”) and the cheese and salami at Di Palo’s Fine Foods (she’s saddened by how much Little Italy has changed but still loves the family operation). And finally, we were amused to see Kobe Club waiter Jeremy Sullivan mentioned in the Times Magazine’s profile of Rush Limbaugh — reporter Zev Chafets leaves the tip after dining with Rush and later, upon reading our Ask A Waiter, is stricken with guilt when he realizes he might have deprived the server of Rush’s customary $5,000 gratuity. Cheap journalists!

The Brooklyn Paper touched on Takeru Kobayashi’s health problems, but an ABC News profile of the Tsunami goes more in depth about the turmoil he’s faced since his mother passed away in March of 2007. It’s going to be harder than ever to root against the poor guy, especially since his “jawthritis” prevents him from using his much feared “Solomon method” of demolishing hot dogs two at a time. Perhaps he’ll take a page from the book of Crazy Legs Conti and Tim “Eater X” Janus, who are profiled in a Voice piece— maybe he’ll resort to the “reverse bunning” method that Crazy Legs also discussed in his New York Diet. Either way, with the contest down from twelve minutes to ten this year (not to mention a forecast of rain), it’s just not going to be the same — especially with the Wall Street Journal putting still more of a damper on things by pointing to a study that indicates that competitive eaters risk the possibility of permanently stretching their stomachs to the point of needing surgery. And then there’s the real tragedy: that Daniel “Mosca” Maurer will not be at the table this year. Sigh.

Bonus Video: In a move akin to Christopher Hitchens getting waterboarded, a Time reporter tries, and fails, to go dog-for-dog with reigning champ Joey “Jaws” Chestnut.

Inside the Belly of Competitive Eating [WSJ]
The (Hungry) Odd Couple of the Nathan's Hot-Dog-Eating Contest [Voice]
Japan's Hot Dog Champ is Back! [ABC News]

The 2007 Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog Eating Contest should have been one for the ages – the Ali-Foreman of competitive eating. After an uninterrupted six-year run, Japan’s Takeru Kobayashi was about to meet his match in American Joey Chestnut, who broke “The Tsunami”’s world record earlier this month in Phoenix. But as you may know, Kobayashi came down with jaw arthritis and can barely open his mouth — and, to make matters worse, the trophy the two nations are jousting for, the Mustard Yellow Belt, has been lost.

At the Nathan’s hot-dog eating contest July 4, competitive-eating fans across the world will be watching to see if Takeru “The Tsunami” Kobayashi can defend his title against the American upstart Joey Chestnut. But here at Grub Street, we’re always more interested in the local angle. New York is representing with two of the country’s top eaters, East Village roommates Tim “Eater X” Janus and Crazy Legs Conti.

There are a lot of reasons to go to the first New York City Food Film Festival, but the chance to watch Buffet — All You Can Eat Las Vegas at the Water Taxi Beach is for us chief among them. Judging from its trailer, above, we think the movie looks like a snarky study of the capital city of American gluttony, complete with shots of waving flags on huge Diamondvision screens and cutaways to pigs feeding at a trough. Given that the festival will be held at one of the most unmistakably New York settings, directly across from midtown on the other side of the East River, and sure to be filled with supercilious foodies, there is bound to be a keen snob pleasure to be had. But the other movies in the festival promise more wholesome joys.

The Axia 3 Thanksiving Invitational was held earlier today at Artie's Deli, and the results were encouraging for fans of New York's competitive eaters. The top prize went to Pat Bertoletti of Chicago, who scoffed down 4.8 pounds of turkey in twelve minutes, but Manhattan's own Tim "Eater X" Janus came in second, with famed downtown roué Jason "Crazy Legs" Conti coming in fourth. Arturo Rios, of New Jersey, loosely speaking a local, took third. "Crazy Legs is my baby daddy," the gracious Rios exclaimed. The morning's big surprise was the disqualification, for "urges contrary to swallowing," of the world's No. 4 ranked eater, Sonia "The Black Widow" Thomas. "I was so greedy," she told us. "I just took too much in my mouth."

But forget the breakdown. Check out the pics!