Eight sausages consumed within one minute. That was a feat achieved by Kenneth Liew, the winner of the second round of a hotdog eating competition, held at the roof garden of City Harvest Church (CHC) on Sunday, 26 October 2008. The competition was part of a hotdog party jointly organized by nine cell groups under Pastor Tan Chee Kiang.
Cell group leader Tina Ho, 18, a student at Republic Polytechnic explained, “Since the secondary school examinations are over, we decided to get our members to invite their friends to come for our church service. We thought the hotdog party after service would be a good way of welcoming them to our church.”
Another cell group leader Cheryl Bok, 19, a student at Ngee Ann Polytechnic agreed, “Everyone loves good food! This hotdog party helped us relive the good old days of reaching out with just simple tools.”
Spearheading the food committee was Jason Jiang, 17, who is currently studying to become a chef. Anticipating a good turnout, his team prepared no less than 300 hotdogs. They were not disappointed. More than 120 students of all ages, comprising church members and their friends, showed up to savor the food and enjoy the fellowship.
A queue for hotdogs quickly formed. Unfazed by the crowd, Jason and his team quickly started work. Armed with sausages and buns, paper towels, and a wide range of sauces including chilli, ketchup, mayonnaise and mustard, they speedily formed an efficient assembly line to hand out flavorful hotdogs to eager patrons. It was not long before contentment was written on everyone’s faces.
    |
| PHOTOS: Shawn Toh / Sara Lee |
After the event, Jason told CityNews, “It was a great privilege to be in charge of food. Preparing food for so many people is not easy, but it was really satisfying to see people enjoying themselves.”
At 3.30pm, the hotdog eating competition was held. The rules were simple: Eat as many hotdogs as you can in one minute. Six male contestants stepped forward for the first round. It was an intense 60 seconds as cheers and screams rang throughout the rooftop and the contestants tried to gobble down as many hotdogs as their mouths would allow. Daryl Lee, won the first round with three and a half hotdogs!
From the second round, the organizers decided to streamline the rules. Contestants only needed to eat the sausages and forget about the bun. This caused even more buzz and seven contenders stepped up. Kenneth Liew, 17, easily won this round with a whopping eight sausages.
The organizers declared the third round to be a round of girl power and six enthusiastic girls stepped up to the challenge. Two of them, Ng Lixin, 14, and Li Hui, 20, emerged joint winners, each finishing six sausages.
Ironically, Kenneth did not intend to participate in the contest but was edged on by his friends to do so. He ended up enjoying himself immensely. He said, “I hope this will be the first of many such events, which show that church is the most exciting place to be.”
Overall, the hotdog party was a great success, bringing joy to leaders, members and friends alike. One friend, Wu Jia Ni, 20, a student who hails from China, said, “The hotdog party is a very fresh idea. I had a really good time.”
Cell group leader Louis Tay, 25, a hospitality officer, summed the event up, “I would call the hotdog party a triumph. It was apt that we organized it on the same weekend that Pastor Kong preached about the importance of creativity. We are committed to continually outdoing ourselves in finding more creative ways of reaching out.”
