Singaporeans are always famous, or infamous for our competitive spirit. After all, who can forget the long queues and bitter fighting to buy a few McDonald’s Hello Kitty soft toys? Couple our competitive nature and our insatiable appetites when it comes to food and you have the ultimate eating competition!

As part of one of Singapore Food Festival 2007 (SFF07)’s core event – Tantalising Treats of Chinatown, the people at Chinatown’s Business Association (CBA) Hainanese Chicken Rice! incorporated a charitable element into the agenda for the SFF and organised an eating competition based on one of the standard bearers of Singaporean cuisine,

The Annual Chicken Rice Eating Competition was held over the weekend (14-15 Jul) at Chinatown. Participants had to consume as many bowls of boneless chicken rice as possible in 10 min. The registration fee ($5) was donated to the Kreta Ayer Senior Activity Centre (KASAC).

After the qualifying rounds held on Saturday from 4pm-5pm, it was down to the final 10 to vie for the crown as Da Chi Wang [Glutton King].

The competition among the top 3 contestants was so close judges had to bring out the weighing scale to determine who had the least leftover.

In the end, Loh Boon Pin, 32, held the final record-breaker of 8 and ¾ bowls of chicken rice in the given time.

While many other contestants chose not to eat a day before this competition, Mr Loh admitted sheepishly that he had a hearty breakfast and even had lunch before the finals (talk about a gigantic appetite!). If you’re expecting a stout and flabby man suffering from mid-life crisis you’d be terribly disappointed. Mr Loh has a tummy overloaded with rock-hard packs and stand at a menacing 1.8m.

This man of few words was all smiles during the interview and would like to give his deepest appreciation to his friends who realised his potential.

He said, “I thought they were making fun of me when they tell me time and again how much I can eat. Never did I expect to win the $2000 and do something for the old folks with this… talent”.

Ng Chin Sheng, 28, and Ng Ting Hua, 25, took second and third place respectively, with the former losing to Mr Loh by less than 20g.

Contestants who didn’t make it to the finals didn’t walk away empty-handed either. They were each given a hamper with a bag of rice, chicken essence and food vouchers to reward them for their sportsmanship.

Among them was Mr. Richard Henderson, a 35 year old tourist who happened to pass by and decided to do his bit for charity.

He said, “I think it’s a great way to give back to the society. I just wanted to do my part while making other contestants feel more relaxed.”
Richard made quite a grand exit, drenching himself silly with the complimentary bottle of mineral water and doing a little boogie before skipping down the stage after eating barely 2 scoops of rice.

Naresh Subramaniam, 19, was one of the few contestants who ate less than 2 bowls during the given period of time.

He said, “I thought I could eat a lot until I saw the other contestants. After the first bowl I decided I couldn’t do it and decided to enjoy the delicious chicken rice while watching the others gorge themselves to death”.

When asked if he felt participating in this competition was a mistake, Naresh dismissed that thought and added that he would gladly take on this challenge again next year.

“I will start training myself tomorrow. We seldom get such opportunities to help the elderly by treating ourselves to such gourmet. I’m definitely participating next year.”

Larson Ong, 29, part of the organising committee, said they were taken aback by the overwhelming response from the public.

He said, “We didn’t expect so many people to pre-register and even come onsite to register 5mins before the competition. We had to turn down so many hopeful contestants, it was quite amazing.”

Mr Ong also added that the CBA would continue this competition for subsequent Food Festivals .

So while the competitive spirit was certainly shown, no violence surfaced! And best of all, many of the contestants willingly gave away their hampers to the old folks loitering around the stage without asking for anything in return.

Now that’s certainly Uniquely Singaporean.