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People come from all over the world and a lot of them never even ate a hot dog.
And that's it.
That's what they want.
They want the New York hot dog and, you know, we serve the best, so that's it.
Dan Rossi has been selling hot dogs in front of the Metropolitan Museum of Art for 18 years.
People call him the New York hot dog king.
His daughter Elizabeth owns the cart next to his.
One of the things about hot dogs is that when you bang into a hot dog and you always have one hand free.
It's a one-handed reel.
A hot dog's a good thing for a city like New York.
Oh, yeah, sure.
Couldn't do it out of it.
And how often are you eating hot dogs nowadays?
Me?
Not that often.
You've had enough.
I've had my top of them all day long.
No, I don't know.
I wonder, could you?
Would you just show me how you make a hot dog?
What?
What would you like on it?
Thank you.
Thank you.
And then he asked me if I wanted to make one myself.
Yeah.
It's not going to help you.
Go ahead, you know what to do.
I'm going to put a little muscle in it, and a little sour crout, and that'll be $4.
That's pretty good.
That looks pretty good, dude.
That's great.
That's good.
It's going for the first time.
Well, you've made my... I mean, if I could just say... I'm all set.
This has been great.
Dream come true.
When I was growing up in Chicago, my family would go out for hot dogs all the time.
But my father told us that if we asked for ketchup, we would get arrested.
On car rides.
My sister Chloe and I would come up with all the different names we could think of for hot dogs.
I love them, and it turns out a lot of other people do too.
So we thought, Why not make an episode?
All about hot dogs.
I'm Phoebe Judge, and this is love.
According to the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council, the origin of the word hot dog stirs as much debate as the existence of UFOs.
One story people like to tell is that the sausages resemble dachshund dogs and a cartoonist drawing them couldn't remember how to spell dachshund, so he just called them hot dogs.
There's also a theory that there were a lot of jokes in the 1800s about butchers using dogs to make their sausages.
The song aware aware has my little dog gone was originally a joke about sausage meat.
In 1939.
Then President Franklin Delano Roosevelt served hot dogs to King George VI and Queen Elizabeth.
The story goes that the queen asked Roosevelt how to eat a hot dog and he told her very simple push it into your mouth and keep pushing it until it is all gone.
The king asked for seconds.
We're not live, so it's just an informal, it's hot dogs, how serious could it be?
I need that on a pillow or something, that's fantastic.
For the past 12 years, John Champlain has been eating hot dogs as often as he can.
He started out visiting every place he could in North Carolina, where he lives, but now he travels all around the country.
He's been to 756 spots so far.
I'm gonna ask you a question.
You hit me.
But no, I don't want you.
There's no follow ups.
You can't.
It's one question and you're just going to have to give me an answer.
Hit me.
I'm ready.
You can pick one state to eat hot dogs in for the rest of your life.
What state is it?
It's North Carolina.
John, there are a few questions that I asked that is like fighting words to me.
But I'll tell you, you just saying North Carolina to me about hot dogs. is the wrong answer.
Tell me where, where, where if you had single state hot dog for the rest of your life.
You don't even have to say state.
City.
So that's got to be, we must be talking Chicago.
Absolutely.
I could talk about this.
We've made a joke before that I should have a hot dog podcast.
This is how I could talk to you about hot dogs for the next three hours.
But anybody who's going to tell me that a North Carolina hot dog could even stand in the same room as hot dog from Chicago?
I don't know.
Maybe we should just stop the interview right now.
I really could go with you just for so long on this topic, John.
I've got a relatively open afternoon.
John has traveled to 43 states so far to try their hot dog, including Alaska, where they're sometimes called reindeer dogs and made with caribou meat.
They also sometimes top it with cream cheese.
John says they also use cream cheese in Seattle.
And in Arizona they have Sonoran hot dogs that are wrapped in bacon and are often topped with pinto beans, chopped tomatoes onions mustard, mayonnaise and jalapenos.
Andy sampled hot dogs in each of North Carolina's hundred counties.
We've got some really interesting colored hot dogs that we are known for a red, bordering on hot pink hot dogs that are out of Eastern North Carolina.
He says that sometimes he can tell where you're from just by your preferred hot dog toppings.
Just over the weekend casually having a hot dog conversation, as I do, somebody mentioned that their favorite was chili, sauerkraut and mustard.
And I said, did you grow up? in Alabama.
And yes, he was from Birmingham.
Do you ever get tired of them?
Yeah, I think so.
The longest one of these hot dog trips that I went on was a full East Coast.
So started in Key West and ended in then gourmet.
And I think it was, it was eight days with at least two hot dog stops a day.
Yeah, I was ready for a little break.
But who are you pulling along on these trips with you?
So I often, my mom and my aunt will go along.
My aunt is not always there for the hot dogs.
I think mom is hot dog driven and me driven because that's a mom's love.
So your mother knows a good hot dog?
Yeah, yeah.
She's a mustard onions relish person.
No, I respect that.
It's not relish isn't for me, but I respect it.
Right, right.
And that just shows a particular level of love when I can read love.
What people prefer toppings are as a type of introduction of who they are.
Have you had a hot dog today?
I have not had a hot dog today.
Will you be having a hot dog today?
I think I have leftovers at home for dinner, but never say never.
Just what?
A little treat.
We'll be right back.
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Hello.
Hello.
Max, Max, can you hear me?
Yeah.
Hi.
Hi.
I'm Phoebe.
Oh, that's my name.
Hi Phoebe.
How old are you?
Free.
Max, do you like hot dogs?
Yeah.
You do?
Yeah.
What's your favorite, what do you like to have on your hot dog?
Um, vanilla ice cream.
Vanilla ice cream on your hot dog?
Yeah.
Yeah.
You don't like ketchup?
Yeah, but I do sometimes.
Sometimes ketchup and sometimes vanilla ice cream.
Yeah.
Max, what do your mom and dad do?
They eat food.
They eat food, huh?
Yeah.
Do they eat a lot of hot dogs?
So many.
Max's mother, Mickey Sudo, has won every Nathan's hot dog eating contest.
She's entered since she started competing in 2014.
She met Max's father, Nick Weary, the morning of the competition in 2018.
It was his first year competing.
Mickey and Nick, see, it took them a long time to actually go out on a date.
A mutual friend had to convince them that they'd be a good fit.
We both fought it for a bit, but once we started speaking it was incredibly simple.
It felt very easy and natural just to beat.
And almost nothing has to do with the eating.
The eating helps, because it's nice to have somebody who understands what it feels like to eat 250 chicken wings or 70 brats or 20 pounds or something.
Yeah, I always kind of I don't know if it was a conscious thought but I always thought of competitive eating as just incompatible with dating, especially as a woman.
So I really just not only was I not pursuing relationships, I just didn't even think that was like, I just did not think it was something that I wanted to do while I was actively competing.
But I mean, here we are.
I mean, the actual process of doing it is not that attractive.
No, we joke around that we love each other in spite of the eating.
But with that said, while watching Miki eat 340 slices of cheese is not an attractive thing per se, I'm not really paying attention to that.
I'm attracted to the fact that she takes her job serious and she works hard.
That means a lot to me, that quality.
While they were dating, they often went to competitions together and competed against each other.
And in 2021, after they've been dating for a couple of years, Nick was invited to an egg eating contest in Las Vegas.
And I was pregnant, so I decided not to go.
And he was, for some reason, insisting that I come along.
And I just said, no, don't worry about me.
Go have fun in Vegas.
Go compete.
I'll see you when you get back.
And then he ended up buying me a ticket for whatever reason and didn't tell me about it, and it was too late to get it refunded.
So I went along.
He's a mess for some reason.
He's putting all this extra pressure on himself.
Long story short.
After he ate the hard boiled eggs and won his event, he starts choking up and his voice is shaking.
And I thought, how awkward is this?
He's about to start, he's tearing up after having won an eating contest.
And that's final.
But it turns out he was about to get on one knee and propose.
So I was completely blindsided.
I did not know that it was coming.
And of course I said yes.
That was another not for everyone type.
But I mean, it was perfect though.
And how many, how many exits you'd just eaten?
50 in about three minutes.
Miki is the top ranked female competitive eater in the world and she's currently ranked fifth overall with men and women.
Nick is ranked sixth.
Would you just tell me what records each of you hold?
Let's see the short form hard boiled egging record.
That's 50 hard boiled eggs in three minutes and four seconds, I think.
There's pistachios there's.
I broke the bratwurst using record, but somebody else broke it the same day.
That was 70 brats in eight minutes, 220 on chicken wings.
Wait a second, wait a second.
Yeah.
70 brats in eight minutes.
Yes, yeah, just 70 bratwurst in eight minutes.
A bratwurst is 90 brats.
That's bigger than a hot dog.
Yeah, well, there's no buns with the bratwurst.
So I hold the women's world record for hot dogs, and that's 51 in 10 minutes.
Let's see, Minnesota hot dish, which is kind of like a creamy rice casserole.
I want to say that one's like 14 pounds in eight minutes.
Ice cream was 16.5 pints in six minutes.
These are all world records, male or female.
But yeah, so pork steam buns, fish balls, cheese slices, hot dish, ice cream, kimchi, hot dogs, doughnuts, large form.
And then several Guinness World Records like fastest time to eat jello with a blindfold, or something like that.
Longest time to get ready when Nick is crippled with anxiety trying to get to the airport.
Biggest eyelashes worn on a competitive eating stage.
How did you get into competitive eating?
My friends had gone into a restaurant that was offering a progressive jackpot back in Las Vegas, and this was back in the time when the show man versus food has.
It was at the height of its popularity, so restaurants were offering large portions of food as a gimmick is something you know.
That was fun for people to share on social media.
And if you completed this large portion, you would collect either jackpot prize money or sometimes it's just a shirt or your name on the wall.
But in any case my friends had gone into a restaurant and tried a 12 pound bowl of pho.
Vietnamese noodle soup.
And I saw pictures of it and I thought, you know, I think I could do that.
So you know, the next day, without any practice or preparation, I actually grabbed those friends who went into the restaurant together and they watched me kind of plug away at this 12-pound challenge.
And I became the first person, the only person too date, to collect that jackpot.
Well, that's the prize.
Just over $1,500.
I think I was just about to graduate from college and you know, looking at entry-level jobs and like 1500 could pay way more than my you know roommate's share of rent at the time.
I mean, it was like, let's do more of these.
Do you feel competitive with each other?
I mean, in like the most loving sense, yes.
I feel like we say this jokingly because it's still coming back to the same house.
Yeah, it's just taking money.
It's all just taking money.
Yeah, it's just bragging rights in the house.
How do you get ready for the Nathan's contest?
You know you'll do practice where you cook up.
You know X amount of hot dogs.
Played them five to a plate.
Have your dunking liquids just like you would in the contest.
Maybe put 10 minutes on the clock.
We used to, let's say, practice side by side, you know, pre-max.
Now typically it's not possible.
It's just the whole point of me having somebody there is.
So I don't quit, because without the adrenaline going from a whole crowd full of people screaming for you.
It's just a little bit less than motivating eating hot dogs by yourself in your backyard or your kitchen.
What is each of your strategy?
So Nick is incredibly fast and furious and I mean almost He's very intense at the gate.
I'm talking specifically hot dogs, but it's kind of generally like this across the board.
Whereas I look like I'm in slow motion or I'm taking my time or I'm deliberately slow.
He choose more.
Whereas I'm like almost like I pause and swallow big, but I'm like a tortoise.
I'm visualizing like a big tortoise right now, like chomp and pause and then chomp and pause.
What's the hardest part of it?
That's going to be a little bit different for everybody, and it depends on the food too.
Yeah, I think for me, because I mean, obviously You don't enjoy hot dogs by dunking the buns into a beverage.
So I mean, I think that that flavor and texture profile can be, you know, not great halfway through the contest.
There's a redundancy of flavor in any contest.
You know, one brought is good.
Brought.
Number 65 doesn't taste quite as good as the first one, at least mentally, because obviously it tastes exactly like the first one did.
You know, but once you you get a sense of flavor fatigue, For me it's probably just real estate how much food I can actually fit, and my stomach is not necessarily as much as some of the other top eaters.
You can be disqualified from a Nathan's competition if you throw up, also known as a reversal of fortune.
The winner gets $10,000.
Do you eat hot dogs? any other time of the year.
I mean, just when you're not training.
Yeah.
We just, we just don't dunk the buns in warm crystal light like we do on stage.
What do you think's going to happen this year at the competition?
What if you both won?
That would be amazing.
That's a dream, right?
And this is, this is where you both met at this competition.
Yeah, that would also be a, it'd be a very, it'd be a storybook.
I'm going to be watching and rooting for you both, and Nick, I think this is your year.
Thank you, Nick.
I genuinely appreciate it.
Hopefully, I can put up a decent performance, make everybody proud.
The Nathan's famous hot dog eating contest is just two days away on July 4th.
Do you think your mom and dad are going to win?
Yeah.
My dad's going to beat my mom.
Antonio Acevedo has been a hot dog vendor at Wrigley Field, where the Cubs play in Chicago, for almost 25 years.
What's your strategy?
Screaming.
Just letting them know.
Well, if you, let's pretend that you're walking up and down the aisles, what would it sound like if I were at Wrigley right now?
I'm in a public place, so I really can't tell you.
I can't really give you an example.
Because it's too loud.
Uh, let me I'm right by the door.
So if I can leave here, let me see if they'll let me.
Oh, I'll give you a real example of a classic really field.
I thought vendor.
Try.
Okay.
That's about it.
Oh, And you can hear it.
I've been told that I've been heard out on Clark Street.
You know, you're familiar with Chicago.
Yeah, that's a. Is anyone looking at you right now as you're doing that?
No, I'm here in in the parking lot where there's nobody here.
Otherwise they would have told me to leave.
I couldn't do that inside.
So I just stepped out.
What do you like to get on your hot dog?
The works.
Pickles, celery salt, no ketchup but everything else onions mustard, tomatoes.
I especially love a standard Chicago hot dog.
You're a real Chicago guy.
110%.
What did Clint East would say?
Dirty Harry?
Nobody puts ketchup on a hot dog.
It's taken seriously.
Taken seriously. at Rigby Field.
Vendors at Rigby Field get to choose what they sell.
The ones with the most seniority get top pick.
Antonio says they almost always choose beer because it makes the most money.
But Antonio, who could choose anything, always goes for the hot dogs.
He says they're a little lighter to carry, but he also just really likes them.
It's not uncommon for me to just sneak over into the corner and eat one without anybody watching.
It's happened before when I'm hungry.
So I am a huge hot dog guy.
I love hot dogs.
Antonio's hot dog call is generally considered to be the loudest at Wrigley Field.
You can even hear it on the TV and radio broadcasts of the games.
But each vendor has their own style.
Here are a few.
Hot dogs!
Hot hot hot dogs!
Hot dogs!
Who's got the beef?
Who's hungry now?
Hot dogs!
Hot dogs!
Hot dogs!
Hot dogs!
Hot dogs!
Hot dogs!
Hot dogs!
We'll be right back. you're basking on a beach in the Bahamas.
Now, you're journeying through the cheap forests of Japan.
Now you're there for your alma mater's epic win.
And now, you're awake.
Womp, womp.
Which means it was all a dream, but with millions of incredible deals on Priceline.
Those travel dreams can be a reality.
Download the Priceline app today, and you can save up to 60% off hotels and up to 50% off lights.
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Harry Barum grew up in Patterson, New Jersey in the 1940s.
His parents had immigrated from Syria.
He says they never ate hot dogs at home.
But then his older brother joined a bowling league and his team started going out for hot dogs at the end of the night.
One night he took Harry.
That was five of my first experience at Hot Dog, probably around 13 years old.
And did you like it right away?
I liked it.
I liked it right away.
That first hot dog you had, do you remember what you had on it?
Yes, I had the cold one all the way.
It was mustard, dark mustard, onions and chili sauce.
Harry says that when he got older he would go out with his friends on Fridays to see rock and roll bands.
And they would always end up at a local hot dog place at the end of the night.
It was called Falls View.
It was built by Greek immigrant. and most of the hot dog places around are all by Greek immigrant.
There were booths and a huge sign up front that said Fallsview and it was just a place to go.
He even proposed to his wife there.
It was the last booth on the right and we were there and we ended up.
We were out for a ride and we ended up going to Fallsview to finish the day and There was a gentleman who was actually he would clean.
The table's name was rich.
And normally what you do is you had to go up and put order and they'd call you up and you've got your hot dogs or whatever you ordered.
That day I went up to Rich and I asked him to do me a favor.
And I gave him the engagement ring and I asked him to put it into the french fries, which he did.
And that's what he did.
He ordered a hot dog.
I ordered two hot dogs.
French fries.
He brought it over with the French pride.
It was just waiting.
All of a sudden, he saw something, picked it up, and thank gosh, you know what it was.
And she said yes.
Well, you're so excited.
I had it.
I finished eating her hot dog.
She couldn't finish.
Yeah, she couldn't finish.
I mean, it's a good thing that she liked hot dogs.
I mean, that probably would have been kind of a prerequisite for someone you married.
They better like hot dogs.
Oh, she had like hot dogs and she liked the giant football.
After they had kids, Harry took them out for hot dogs on the weekends.
Harry says there were places where if you bought six hot dogs, you could get the seventh one free.
Well, back then, uh, money was pretty tight, but that was a good Saturday Sunday.
If the ride with the kids was a cheap deal and they grew up basically on hot dogs as well.
Today, Harry is 87 and he's still eating hot dogs.
He goes on what he calls hot dog crawls with two friends.
He met at a church dinner.
They always get the same topping.
The toppings Harry had on his very first hot dog.
When you order it, you ask for one all the way.
Dark mustard, onions, and a special chili sauce.
And ideally, the hot dogs are deep fried.
It's a specialty of Patterson, New Jersey, where Harry grew up.
There is something about the deep-fried hot dog and the chili sauce that just made it special.
How many would you visit a day?
We started out four, and we went to five, and now the last three calls were spent.
Six a day?
Six a day, yes.
Do you eat the whole thing?
Yes.
The guy in West, the most trouble is Ron.
But he struggles.
He takes Pepto visible before I think around.
Why do you think you like hot dogs so much?
The hot dogs are great.
Really, it's more than the hot dog.
It's hard to explain.
Because it's for me and my buddies.
Well, that's where we usually ended up tonight.
Be able to sit there and have a hot dog and then talk about what you went through that night.
Then you look back and you can sit down and say the laugh is some of the things we've probably talked about and bring your family there.
And it was just, it was, it was a place where a part of our lives were.
Harry says that when the time comes, he would like hot dogs to be served at his funeral, ideally from a little push cart right by the casket.
As you're passed by the, as you're finished getting your respects.
I had initially said, I want a hot dog in my hand.
I don't know how that's going to be.
The push guard would be that if we're interested in having a hot dog, it would be we'd have a hot dog all the way.
You don't have the honey.
You don't want the honey.
And with mustard, dark mustard, onions, chili, you get a chili's on top.
The onions don't fall off.
And they'd be welcome to have a hot dog.
So after they pass, after they pass by your casket, they'll get a hot dog as they walk by.
They could have a hot dog.
No charge.
I want a crowd.
And that would be the way we would advertise it, you know.
I think it would be a draw.
When did you first come to DC?
I came in the early 50s, about 1953.
I came from Virginia.
My dad had up 325 acres of farm.
So I knew how to work hard.
And I came up to Washington, which I found segregated cities just as a state of Virginia was.
And my very first job was an industrial bank.
This is Virginia Alley, the owner of one of the most famous places in the United States to get a hot dog Ben's Chili Bowl.
How did you and Ben meet?
We kind of saw each other in that bank.
I was a commercial teller.
He came in and I served him.
He came the next day and I served him again.
And he came on the third day.
And the other leaders were not busy, but he kind of waited for me to serve him.
And I did.
And of course he.
You know we don't have a lot of conversation, but he passed a little note to me as he left.
And the note said, Please call me a phone number and sign up Ben Alley.
Well, back in those days, a lady wouldn't do such a thing.
So, of course, I couldn't call him.
I thought he was cute, but I could not call him.
Nonetheless, the bank closed at two o'clock in those days.
And I guess it must have been around 220 to 230.
The phone rings in the bank.
And somebody answers it, yells, Virginia, telephone.
So I go get the phone, and this gentleman says, this has been Elliot.
Why didn't you call me?
I said, I don't know you, sir.
He said, what would you like to know?
Virginia says that before she could answer, he began to tell her his whole life story.
And they eventually realized they had some friends in common.
OK, now I think we know the same people.
I can give him my home phone number.
So I gave him the home phone number.
He called me that evening, asked me out to dinner, and the rest is history.
While they were dating, Ben asked Virginia if she'd be interested in opening up a restaurant with him.
I was not familiar with the restaurant business, but I'm a quick learner and I learned when I worked at the bank.
How much I enjoyed people interacting with people.
It was so much fun for me all day working there and interacting with different people every day.
So when they talked about the restaurant, I'm like, more people for me to enjoy.
Yes, that was yes.
Ben's Chili Bowl opened on August 22, 1958.
Virginia and Ben were married seven weeks later.
What was the idea for the restaurant?
Well, it started out to be a binge chilli bowl with the child dogs.
It was basically the chilli dogs were the big deal.
Our hours were at 11 am until 3 am during the week and 4 am on Friday and Saturday night, because we were located right there on your street, which was known as Black Broadway.
It was the entertainment center. for African Americans.
We had jazz clubs, and music halls, and restaurants, and all of that in that community.
You know, it was where everything happened in the Black community.
Tell me, what would the chili bowl be like on a Saturday night?
Oh my.
On a Friday and Saturday night from midnight until 4 am in the morning.
You could barely get into the chili bowl.
And we had the jukebox going with the Motown music.
We were just having a kind of very good time.
What was the most popular order?
Well, initially it was a chili dog, but then we brought in the chili half smoke, which is a breakfast sausage that we thought would go bent on the reverse.
It would be very good and a soft, steamed hot dog bun.
And we dress it up with our very own chili sauce, our very own Spicy, chili sauce.
It was a big hit that became the number one item on the menu.
Virginia worked the day shift and Ben worked the night shift, and they both did whatever needed doing.
And it actually became a gathering place.
People would just come to meet there.
And then later on in the sixties we're doing the civil rights movement and the place of sitting with Dr Martin Luther King a few times while he was here in Washington planning his march on Washington.
He came to the church of old, and his favorite thing was a chili cheeseburger.
He came very yeah, because he, you know, he and his comrades had to get the permission, had to get the permits, had to get all of these things together.
He told me one story that I never forgot.
He said that he had an appointment and met with President Kennedy.
And he told President Kennedy about the injustices of black people and that he was going to bring a large number of people here to protest those injustices.
He said President Kennedy said you know, I understand we want to help you, but we don't think it's a good idea to bring a large group of people.
He said, if there is an incident, it will set your movement back.
He said, that won't be an incident.
When his history will tell you, he brought 250,000 people here that day.
Ben and I managed to get down there.
It's such an inspiring day, a beautiful day, a sea of people.
All you can do is see people, all colors, all backgrounds, all ages, and a beautiful program.
And then finally, I have a dream speech.
When we came away from that, We just felt like change is going to come.
Well, we passed a civil rights bill in 1964.
So now we're integrated.
But then, five years later, someone runs into the chilebo that night and yells Dr King has been shot.
Well, we don't believe that.
We don't believe that at all.
And then somebody else comes and somebody else comes.
And before you know it, somebody comes up with some kind of little radio and we learned that he has been shot and later on he had passed away.
People were openly sobbing as they would come into the cello bowl and upset this very special, non-violent leader of ours being taken away so violently.
And people were frustrated and I guess that frustration turned to anger and, before you know it, You hear windows being smashed late in the night and the riots began.
Now we were the only place that was asked to remain open the next day, doing three nights of curfew, which was very scary, but my husband was able to do that because we had been there 10 years and because the community knew that We were a dependable company.
We were a family that could help you.
If we could help you, we did.
And no one touched my place.
We did not get scratched.
No, no one.
My husband didn't write on the window.
So brought that across the window.
But other than that, nobody touched our place.
In 2009, Barack Obama visited Ben's chili bowl.
It was his first public outing in D.C. as President-elect.
What did he order?
Oh, he met the chilly half-smoke.
The chilly half-smoke, he had the chilly half-smoke, and he was just as at home as he could be.
Virginia will turn 92 in December, but she says she still works at the chili bowl whenever she can and she eats there whenever she can too.
Beef chili dog.
I love the beef chili dogs with mustard, onions, and chili.
And occasionally I'll do a chili cheeseburger.
But I really, really used to eat a beef dog almost every day.
Almost every day.
For lunch.
For lunch.
For lunch.
Now go home and have the vegetables and stuff.
But for lunch, I enjoy that.
Sometimes I could hardly wait for 12 o'clock for me to have my chili roll.
So you haven't gotten sick of them after all these years?
No, no, no, no.
I just can't eat them every day anymore.
When I was younger, I could eat anything, any hour, any time.
And had a ball eating a big appetite.
Today, her three sons and two of her daughters-in-law helped run Ben's chili bowl.
What does the chili bowl mean to you?
I mean, it's been your whole life, almost your whole life.
It has kept me.
It inspires me.
It energizes me as a better word.
It really energizes me.
I lost my husband in 2009 and I compare myself with my friends under my age and maybe a few years younger that stay home and take it easy.
They got more ailments than I've ever had.
So if I feel a little bit down, which I rarely do, all I have to do is jump in the shower, throw on something and walk in that chilly boat door.
And about 20 minutes later, I'm just fine.
This is Love is created by Lauren Spore and me, Nadia Wilson is our senior producer.
Katie Bishops, our supervising producer.
Our producers are Susanna Robertson, Jackie Sajiko, Lily Clark, Lena Sillison, and Megan Canane.
Our show is mixed and engineered by Veronica Simonetti.
Learn more about the show on our website.
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In our next one, we'll have pictures of the hot dog cart in New York, including the hot dog I made.
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In our latest episode, we did a hot dog taste test.
Okay, so you see, I've numbered, just so you know that I'm not screwing around here.
See, I've won.
Don't look.
I've got to change it now.
I've got to change it now.
OK, because it's blind.
You want me to be blind?
Yes, it's blind.
I've got to change it out.
OK.
Don't look.
OK.
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I'm Phoebe Judge, and this is love.
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