A whole city gathered to celebrate a man who ate an entire rotisserie chicken for 40 days straight. Alexander Tominsky, dubbed "The Philadelphia Chicken Man", polished off his final meal of the challenge surrounded by an energetic crowd chanting "eat that bird".
The US city, which had just lost both the World Series in baseball and the Major League Soccer Cup in the space of five hours, desperately needed an occasion to life its spirits. Tominsky then invited his supporters to witness his last chicken feast at an abandoned pier near Walmart, with people turning out in their droves.
The foodie, who had documented his journey with daily selfies on Twitter, celebrated with the crowd after completing the dish - which even included one supporter dressed in full chicken costume, the Daily Star reports.
Sharing his somewhat existential reason for taking part in the challenge, Tominsky told the The New York Times that with so much pain in the world, he wanted to do something that brought him pain so that others could smile. He said: “Sounds weird, but I just felt like I was doing this for a very important reason.”
His original idea was to eat a rotisserie chicken every day for a month, but he then extended this to 40 days after he felt he could keep on going.
At the start of the challenge, Tominsky could finish the bird within 20 minutes, however as a weeks went by he started experiencing cramp and could “feel the pulse of my heart in my stomach.”
By the halfway mark, it was taking him two hours.
As the chicken was the only meal he for the whole day, Tominsky lost 16lbs (7kg) over the 40 day challenge, and he said he got so sick of the taste he started chewing it into pieces before guzzling it down with water.
Tominsky told The NY Times he was happy he reached the finish line - and wouldn't be having chicken for a while. “My body is ready for repair,” he said.
Don't miss the latest news from around Scotland and beyond - Sign up to our daily newsletter here.
