Top Dog

Forget Italy vs. France, or Holland vs. Argentina in the World Cup. This weekend, on July 4th no less, the biggest showdown will be America vs. Japan on the boardwalk at Coney Island.

It’s a clash of epicurean proportions. Cue the theme from “Rocky” and loosen your pants: When the dust finally settles here, only one man will stagger away with Nathan’s Famous International Hot Dog Eating crown.

Will it be Ed “The Animal” Krachie, a brooding 350-pound ex-champ from Queens who lost the title last year? Or will Hirofumi “Magic” Nakajima, a 130-pound furniture mover from Tokyo, confound the experts and repeat his 1997 triumph?

Last year, he set a world record in the contest, gobbling an amazing 24 1/2 hot dogs in 12 minutes. Nakajima’s victory stunned many contestants, who still find it hard to believe that such a small man could eat so much, so fast.

“I have a secret, but I cannot reveal it,” Nakajima said in a phone interview through an interpreter, just before getting on a plane bound for New York. “Ed Krachie is a great and powerful man. But I too am powerful. And I will win.”

Nuts to that, says Krachie, 35, who has been in shock since losing the coveted Mustard Yellow International Belt last year. He’s been training with relish--drinking gallons of water (to expand stomach muscles) and eating huge amounts of food.

He’s mustered all his powers, concentrating on videotapes of Nakajima’s performance, and trying to forget his own. “People say to me, ‘How could you let him take it?’ says the 6-foot-7 mechanical engineer. “But I didn’t do anything! I ate 22 hot dogs and felt like I was about to have a heart attack. This guy keeps going. How do you beat that?”

A year before, Krachie’s record of 22 1/2 hot dogs in 12 minutes seemed unassailable. He was cocky and full of beans, only to have a 22-year-old kid take the belt back to Japan.

It was a dark day for America, says promoter George Shea, sounding more like a Coney Island barker than a PR man for Nathan’s. “This is national honor,” he insists. “And even if America loses the title once again, the show must go on!”

There are 13 other ‘wannabes’ in the competition, which began in 1916 and has become America’s most famous food-eating contest. Nathan’s hot dogs and French fries are synonymous with Coney Island, on Brooklyn’s southern shore, and the contest that began as a humble promotion has taken on an international flair.

To enter, individuals must either win one of several regional competitions or receive a special invitation. The winner gets 480 hot dogs, an imitation marble trophy and global belching, er, bragging rights.

As hundreds watch, the contestants sit at a long table in an alley near Nathan’s. They are allowed to drink water and dunk the hot dogs in seltzer to make them easier to go down. The key rule: the entire dog--bun and all--must be consumed.

One of this year’s most intriguing challengers is Barry Noble, a retired social worker from Newcastle, England. He holds the world record for eating haggis, a Scottish dish of sheep heart, liver and lungs, mixed with suet and oatmeal and boiled in a sheep’s stomach.

A surprise winner is always possible, and Noble has his fans. Yet most experts say the main event remains Krachie v. Nakajima--or “Rocky III,” depending on your point of view.

“I wouldn’t have come back just to beat some guys who eat 17 or 18 hot dogs in 12 minutes,” said Krachie. “I mean, big deal. To me, the whole point is getting this title back from the guy who took it away from me. That’s all that matters.”

In the world of competitive food-eating, the two men are titans. Nakajima is a hero and celebrity in Japan, where he holds numerous records: Sushi (100 pieces in 30 minutes); noodle soup (15 bowls in 60 minutes); soba noodle (5 baskets in 30 minutes); curry with rice (5 bowls in 30 minutes).

As for Krachie, he’s a big man with a big stomach. On a dare, he entered and won a local hamburger eating contest 15 years ago, chomping 37 in 10 minutes.

His confidence--and waistline--expanding, Krachie chewed up the competition in subsequent chicken-wing and hot dog contests, finally getting up the nerve to try for the big time on Coney Island.

He finished second in 1994, blaming the loss on his ignorance of an old eating trick.

Just as the final bell sounds, he says, you stuff two more wieners in your mouth. They count toward the total as long as you swallow them.

Just as in world sports, the level of competition has grown at Nathan’s since the 1950s and 1960s, when winners wolfed down a mere 17 or 18 dogs. Nowadays, you have to clear 22 just to be in the running.

“You gotta be alert,” says Mike “The Scholar” DeVito, who beat Krachie four years ago. “You need to keep your face close to the plate. You’ve got to squeeze the rolls with one hand to get the air out of them, while you eat with the other hand.”

A Wall Street executive, DeVito is a contrast to blue collar types who typically enter the contest. But when it comes to stuffing himself in front of strangers, he fits right in.

“I once ate 14 hot dogs at a baseball game, so my friends told me I had a future in this,” he says. “Right now, I’ve got myself up to 20 hot dogs in 12 minutes, but that’s still not good enough to beat the Japanese guy. He’s very good.”

Maybe too good, Krachie suggests.

“I don’t want to sound disgruntled,” he says. “But a friend of mine wondered if he [Nakajima] is using stomach muscle relaxants. . . . We even had a doctor check to see whether a man of that size could eat so much and not get sick.”

The investigation was inconclusive, and Krachie doffs his hat to the champion. Win or lose, there’s one tradition he’ll observe after the contest ends--and his indigestion begins.

“I always throw a big 4th of July party for my friends at my house,” he says. “Usually I don’t feel like eating much after 22 hot dogs. So I’ll take it easy. I’ll just have a couple hot dogs, a couple burgers, and call it a night.”