Shove them in fast as you can
Whether it is scoffing it down dry or using water, the consensus about the best way to eat hot dogs is to stuff them in your gob as fast as possible.
Palmy Bid, a group that works to promote the city’s central business district, ran Missoula Day in Te Marae o Hine-The Square on Saturday.
The event was to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Palmerston North being sister cities with Missoula, in Montana in the United States, and to give the inner city a boost.
It was an American-themed event including rides, entertainment, food, music and American cars, and the main attraction was a hot dog eating competition.
Competitors in three different divisions had three minutes to eat as many hot dogs as possible. They didn’t come with sauce but the contestants were allowed water.
Fergus Wilton, 10, took part in the junior competition and his mother Rhonda Walkley stepped in to fill a gap in the adult competition. She went on to win.
The adult grade was too close for the judges to separate after a first round, so Walkley and another woman went to an eat-off where Walkley was victorious.
‘‘I feel great,’’ she said after the win. ‘‘I hadn’t eaten until this. I don’t mind the odd hot dog but it is pretty dry.’’
She and Fergus, who had entered in the junior competition, came up with the idea to bring their own bottle of water, which helped to munch through the hot dogs quickly.
‘‘You rip it in half, take out the sausage and then dip the bread in the water and keep eating,’’ Fergus said.
Terrace End School pupils Raidin Tautau, 10, and Nuku Hape, 11, did not know the competition was on until they arrived at Te Marae o Hine. Raidin won the junior competition by scoffing down two hot dogs. ‘‘I just kept shoving them in my mouth.’’ He had milo and cereal for breakfast but still had an appetite at lunchtime for hot dogs and was considering eating another one after the competition finished.