By Chua Chin Hon
US Bureau Chief
chinhon@sph.com.sg

 

HUNTINGTON (West Virginia): As a journalist, I have had to do a bunch of strange things over the years in the name of work.

But eating a 38cm, 1.6kg hotdog dubbed the 'Home Wrecker' must count as one of the more unusual - and certainly most unhealthy - challenges.

The monster-sized hotdog, weighing more than 10 times a regular one, has been called 'the hotdog from Hell' and a 'weapon of cardiovascular mass destruction' by food bloggers.

-- ST PHOTO: CHUA CHIN HON

No one in Huntington eats the 'Home Wrecker' on a regular basis, of course. Obesity is also caused by unhealthy habits over a long period of time, rather than a few sessions of binge eating.

'People eat the 'Home Wrecker' as a novelty,' explained Ms Sherri Shaw, manager of the Hillbilly Hotdogs restaurant that has been serving up the giant hotdog for four years. 'The ones who order it are usually college kids, tourists and visitors.'

Still, my wife and I wanted to check out what the frontier of extreme eating was like in a city that had been labelled, fairly or unfairly, the 'fattest in America'.

So on our third day in Huntington, we finally mustered enough courage and trooped down to Hillbilly Hotdogs for a shot at the 'Home Wrecker'.

You get a free T-shirt if you can finish the hotdog in 12 minutes. You eat for free if you can beat the current record of three minutes and forty-five seconds set by Mr Dale Boone, a competitive eater from Atlanta.

Nicknamed 'the Mouth of the South', Mr Boone's previous accomplishments include eating 100 oysters in two minutes, 24 doughnuts in 40 seconds, and 115 pieces of sushi in 10 minutes.

The waitress who took our order did not even bother asking if we wanted to challenge Mr Boone's record.

And just as well. We were ready to surrender even before we started eating. The sight of the giant hotdog on our table along made us wonder how any one person had the stomach capacity to put it all away, let alone eat it in record time.

The giant hotdog itself featured a one pound beef sausage. Nestled in a thick chewy hotdog bun, it was piled high with toppings - a smorgasbord of cheese, a meat sauce, tomatoes, peppers, coleslaw, and onions. It looked like it could feel a family of four.

We had to use both hands to lift it off the plate and it nearly broke into two as it strained under its own weight.

-- ST PHOTO: CHUA CHIN HON

Then came the moment of truth, the eating of the 'Home Wrecker'. This was the first hotdog I had to eat with a knife and fork. We each sliced off some of the deep-fried hotdog and bread, and paired it with some of the topping.

It didn't taste too bad at first. The toppings were fresh as we chomped down on the strange savoury mix.

But by the fifth or sixth bite, the going got harder. The mess that one made while battling the giant sausage and its mountain of sauce and shredded vegetables made the whole experience worse.

We soldiered on but gave up the fight after finishing about half of the 'Home Wrecker', which still dwarfed a regular-sized hotdog that we ordered for comparison.

-- ST PHOTO: CHUA CHIN HON

Ms Shaw told us that only one in 10 people who order the 'Home Wrecker' ever succeed in finishing the super-sized meal. But still, five to six diners each day would attempt the challenge.

As we drove back to the hotel, we took some small comfort in the fact we wisely chose not to take on the other food challenge on the menu - the Hillbilly Double-wide Burger.

At 8kg, the burger is said to be about the size of a dustbin lid and feeds 30 people.

I hope they serve a health warning, instead of fries, with that.

Read more on the Saturday Special here