Crazy Legs Conti, left, Timothy Janus, right, courtesy IFOCE. Attention competitive eating fans – hey, stop snickering; it’s a legitimate sport regulated by an International Federation! As one fan site says, "For those of you who doubt it's a sport, try making your body consume 20 pounds of food in 10 minutes." Anyway, C.E. fans will definitely want to plan for an extra-long lunch break on Tuesday, May 20th, when two of the world’s biggest......

We were poking around on Lupa's website and noticed their stunningly beautiful photo gallery for the first time. Michael Piazza's visuals are simply gorgous, and several are downright mouthwatering. The Epi-Log compiles ten food books that they think every chef should own, including some of our favorites, like Heat, Tender at the Bone, the Omnivore's Dilemma, and The Art of Eating. Bruni ponders how best to navigate the annoying social ballet of splitting the bill......

It's our favorite July 4th tradition, this side of smiley-face fireworks: The Annual Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest, held at Nathan's in Coney Island. And this year's competition is particularly tantalizing: Current champion Takeru Kobayashi has been having jaw pains, while Joey Chestnut broke the hot dog eating record, by scarfing down 59.5 at a June event. So we shall begin our liveblogging, and Jen Chung and Tien Mao will be providing other commentary......

Competitive eating powerhouses convened in front of City Hall today to be weighed in for tomorrow's Nathan's Famous July Fourth Hot Dog Eating Contest. Six-time winner and current mustard belt holder Takeru Kobayashi weighed in at 154 pounds while Joey Chestnut, who broke Kobayashi's hot-dog eating record by keeping down 59.5 hot dogs at an Arizona event last month, weighed in at 215 pounds. Kobayashi had signaled his all-important jaw muscles weren't feeling that......

With the Nathan's Famous 4th of July Hot Dog Eating Competition just three days away, excitement is building over who will take home the Mustard Belt this year. With perennial champion Takeru Kobayashi hampered by a reported jaw problem, the Mustard Belt is up for grabs and local contendors may have a shot. Californian Joey Chestnut broke Kobayashi's hot dog-eating world record a month ago, but the New York Post profiled two men, "Crazy......

Wednesday night we celebrated the release of Eat This Book! by Ryan Nerz on the (still enclosed) rooftop of The Delancey, savored cupcakes from Sugar Sweet Sunshine and watched our first professional eating contest. From left, we saw "Crazy Legs" Conti, Eric "Badlands" Booker and Tim "Eater X" Janus eat as many mini cupcakes as possible (without water!) in 2 minutes. At 29 tiny frosted cakes, New York's own (and a crowd favorite) Badlands won,......