On your mark, get set, eat!

KUALA LUMPUR: Turning epiphany to reality, Mukris Mokhtar took a leap of faith in organizing Malaysia’s first ever hot-dog eating competition.

Taking place in 108 Uptown Street Urban, Ampang Saturday night, the competition was part of Mukhris’ promotional plan for a soft opening of his new hot-dog venture.

After six months of thorough research and development of creating a mouth watering recipe, his team came up with the idea of infusing Western and traditional Malay taste into hot-dogs.

“We have seen big names serving hot-dogs as their main menu such as A&W, Nathan’s Famous and they used eating competition as a way to promote their brand.

”And I’ve always been a huge fan of hot-dogs, I decided to go with the idea of organising an eating competition too.

”We’ve been operating here at this food court for close to a month now, and looking at the crowd tonight – the cheers and the excitement – we hope to make this eating competition as a yearly event, and probably at different locations too,” he said.

The competition was aimed at looking for one person who could eat a foot-long hot dog in the shortest time.

It saw the participation of 18 contestants and offered rewards of RM200 for the winner, RM100 for the runner-up and RM50 for the second runner-up.

Seated in a ring-shaped “eating platform” at the centre of the food court, the crowd gathered around to witness the momentous event, cheering on the contestants happily.

It started at 10pm and the contestants jumped right after the announcer said “go”.

In less than a minute, one man put his hands up and screamed “Hot-Dog Challenge!”

The winner was 24-year-old Muhammad Amin Mohd Izhar.

”Truthfully, I only managed to sign up for this competition hours before it started. I found out about the competition from a friend, who happens to be a family member of the owner and decided to jump right in to support them.

”I did not look up at all after I heard the announcer said ‘go!’. In fact, I was shocked and excited to learn that I won first place!

”This is my first time of joining an eating competition and I won! I’m beyond happy that I get to earn RM200 just by eating. Finally, it gives me more benefit than usual!” he said, adding that he is looking forward to join more eating competitions in the future.

The second runner up for the

competition, Mohammad Mukhzani Che Mokhtar, 31, said he had done “special” preparation in facing the challenge.

”I did not eat the whole day. The first and last meal before tonight was at 6 o’clock in the morning.

”I believe this competition is a good recreational event, because as we get to see, the event got everybody in the food court up on their feet and cheering. It’s like in the movies!

”I think hot-dog vendors should do it frequently, make it a few eating challenges with different goals, such as Challenge One; testing your endurance, Challenge Two: testing your eating speed and such. That way, the vendors can come up with more varieties of recipes and that can attract a bigger crowd.

”And after a day of not eating, I feel joyful that I get to eat and at least earn RM50 from it,” he said.

Source: NST