Forget the Kentucky Derby: There’s one local race you’re definitely not going to want to miss. The 2nd Annual Chicken & Rice Guys Eating Contest will take place Friday, May 3 at 3 p.m at the Chinatown Gate. And, as Chicken & Rice Guys CEO Ian So tells BostInno, the event is sure to be “competition and gluttony at its finest.”
The popular food truck, which hit the streets of Boston back in 2012, has now expanded to three trucks and catering. So also tells us that the company has plans to start a storefront in the next year. As hungry patrons, we’re certainly looking forward to that, but in the meantime, we’ll have to settle for their amazing mobile kitchen.
Here, Ian So tells BostInno what we can expect from this year’s exciting smackdown.
Where did the idea for the Chicken & Rice Guys Eating Contest come from?
The idea came from the different food challenges at restaurants. In the beginning, we were thinking of doing a spicy food challenge since our hot sauce is really spicy. But we realized that could get dangerous. So, we decided to do a running eating contest instead. It was pretty funny at first, people would push themselves very hard and often times throw up. The record ended up to be 3.25 plates, and then after that, nobody tried to challenge that record.
So from that, it evolved into a full scale eating contest because we wanted to generate some marketing at Northeastern. At the time, they had won a contest with BU, and we gave out 100 plates to NEU students. We tied in the eating contest because it seemed like a fun thing to do. Since then, we’ve made it an annual contest.
Can you tell us exactly how this eating contest will go down on Saturday?
As of this morning (April 30), we have 28 men and 20 women signed up. We are going to accommodate as many as we can. But I think it will have to be capped at 40 for each division. The contest will be held at the Chinatown Gate, and we are going to set up five rows of tables. The contestants will have 15 minutes to eat as much as they can. They can either use the fork we provide, or their hands. They must eat two cups of sauce with their food, and throwing up equals automatic disqualification. The winner wins unlimited chicken and rice if and when their record is broken at the next year’s contest.
Any memorable moments from last year’s eating contest?
Last year was crazy. We did not expect that many people, so it was a blur. People were going crazy though. We had more than a few people eat with their hands. We had one guy beat his chest to try to get more food down. I am not sure if that technique actually worked. What was impressive about the women’s champion, was that the record for the men’s was 2.53 and the women’s record was 2.5 plates. The women had 5 minutes more, but still impressive.
What can we expect this year at the Chicken & Rice Guys event?
They should expect to see a Nathan’s Hot Dog style eating contest. Competition and gluttony at its finest. Maybe one day we can attract professional food contest competitors!
Image via Facebook
