I’m an official food champion thanks to foodpanda & SugarBun

Recently, I’ve been watching a lot of food challenge videos on YouTube. It’s always some ridiculous amount of food or something seriously spicy.

That’s why when I received an invitation to the ‘Spicy Lak Lak Chicken Challenge’, I was immediately curious how well I would do.

The challenge is to consume as much of Sugarbun’s newest (and hottest) menu item, the Lak Lak Broasted chicken, within eight minutes.

But why stuff yourself full of these fiery pieces of chicken? Maybe the top prize of RM5,000 in foodpanda vouchers would change your mind.

Here’s the story of how I not only made my debut as a competitive eater… but also came out a winner.

(Plus, read till the end to learn about some special foodpanda offers!)

The Spicy Lak Lak Chicken Challenge

The Spicy Lak Lak Chicken Challenge was held by foodpanda Malaysia, one of the nation’s leading food and grocery delivery platforms, and SugarBun, Sarawak’s beloved local fast-food chain.

This momentous event was to celebrate the launch of the new offering as well as SugarBun’s fourth year in the panda pick programme – the restaurant can only be found exclusively on foodpanda delivery.

Although the Lak Lak Chicken was described as ‘mouthwateringly spicy’, the promise of exciting prizes led to dozens of people gathering at Wisma SugarBun on 15 July 2023.

I was one of those people, though I initially wasn’t thinking of joining the food competition.

You see, there were only five slots for potential participants for each group – one group comprising customers and another group for media people.

The way the participants were selected is through a lucky draw. For customers, they would be notified on Facebook, while media people would be drawn on the day itself.

So, when I arrived for the event and was asked whether I wanted to join, I just said yes. I had already eaten breakfast a couple of hours ago, but I assumed I wouldn’t be called.

Unfortunately for me, I was about to enter the toughest battle in my life.

My debut as a competitive eater

I’ve always had a rather decent appetite. I’m usually the one among my friends to help finish a meal or go for after meal desserts. I’m also the one who tends to be the first at the table to clean my plate.

At the same time, I would say I only have an average spice tolerance. Sure, I love my Samyang Carbo Buldak with extra cheese, but I’m not one to add chili to every meal.

But being all these things doesn’t equal to being a good competitive eater, though perhaps my advantage was being faced with other non-competitive eaters.

The other competitors drawn from the media people consisted of two men and two other women.

I felt like anyone of us could emerge a winner. Though as I sat down, I told myself “I’m not going to get first place. But all I need to do is do better than most of them.”

Since knowing the enemy is the first step of winning a battle, I examined the Lak Lak Chicken closely before the time began.

Just looking at it shows that it is coated in a thick layer of fragrant spices.

Even when I was sitting in the audience earlier, I could smell the delicious aroma of spice hitting my nose – and I was wearing a 4PLY surgical face mask!

I was nervous how spicy it was going to taste, but I didn’t have much time to dwell on it.

The most important eight minutes of my life had begun.

How I overcame the heat of the battle

When I took my first bite of the Spicy Lak Lak Chicken, I realised that it wasn’t as spicy as I feared.

I wouldn’t say it wasn’t spicy, it was still hot, though not overly so, and still tolerable – spicier than my usual Samyang Carbo Buldak.

Fortunately, the heat was packed on the skin of the chicken. So, eating fast allowed me to easily down the first couple of drumsticks.

The flesh of the chicken was amazingly fresh, flavourful, and juicy – much like the usual broasted chicken from SugarBun we all know and love.

I stayed focused on my food while I was eating, while other contestants let out cries of “pedas”. I kept my head down and continued chewing.

But then I made an unlucky choice of drumstick on my fourth piece. Biting into it, I realised it was still hot – too warm to quickly chew and swallow.

My pace slowed down significantly. I was forced to wait and chew slowly, which then allowed the spice to seep through my senses.

My nose began to water from the spice. This slowed me down even more, so when I grabbed my fifth piece and heard “one minute left”, I knew this would be my last.

At the very last second, I cleaned off my final drumstick and brought my count to five.

It was then that I allowed myself the luxury to look at the others’ plates – I quickly saw I had more than most of them.

Rematch, downfall, and crushing defeat

As the score was being tallied, I immediately started to take big swigs of water and Coke to wash my meal down.

I was still reeling from the challenge when I suddenly realised that they were proposing a rematch. I was going to be facing one of the men who I thought had way more bones on his plate than mine.

The rematch was only going to be a minute, but I knew I had already lost because I had already downed an entire bottle of water by that point.

While both of us were only able to finish a single drumstick, I couldn’t swallow in time – I was too tired, too full of water.

And that’s how I came in second place in my first ever eating competition.

Coming in second in the media team category meant that I had won RM300 worth of foodpanda vouchers and an additional goodie bag for my participation.

Despite not coming in first, I would still say this is easily one of my proudest achievements – my competitive eating career has finally begun!

More promotions and more delicious offers

All jokes aside, if you want to try the Lak Lak Chicken Challenge for yourself at home, there are some new promotions you should take advantage of.

New customers can enjoy 50% off their first SugarBun order with a minimum order value of RM20, capped at RM10 with the promo code NEWSUGAR, while stocks last.

The Lak Lak Offer is available only on foodpanda for a limited time. It includes two pieces of Lak Lak Broasted chicken, savoury rice, pickles, and a Coke.

Customers in Sarawak can also enjoy their first month of pandapro subscription at RM0.50 instead of the usual RM8.90! Just use the promo code PANDAPROKU for access to:

• Free delivery (up to RM4) with minimum order of RM25 for restaurants and RM50 for shops and pandamart
• Dine-in offers
• Up to 15% off on restaurants
• Extra 5% off for pick-up

Do you want to beat my record? Then what are you waiting for? Start training and use those foodpanda offers to order the Spicy Lak Lak broasted chicken today!

In the meantime, I’ll be slowly recovering from my victory…