As the first Samyang Korean Fire Noodle Challenge, a part of the Aspire Winter Festival, continues to attract participants from various nationalities, organisers are now planning to hold similar activities in schools and universities in Qatar in the coming weeks.
The three-day event, which started on Thursday and concludes today, aims to further promote Korean products in the country.
“We will be going to schools, following a similar model we did in Indonesia and Philippines,” Vision Food Trading general manager Jewan Park told Gulf Times. He said they started collaborating with Stenden University Qatar, which expressed willingness to host a spicy noodle challenge inside its campus in the next few weeks.



Jewan Park awards one of the winners of the challenge.

Park stressed that they want to continue such initiative not only with one particular Korean food or item. “We can also do a dumplings challenge, like who can eat 10 pieces of dumplings or kimchi dumpling, which is also quite spicy, within 30 or 40 seconds,” he added. 
According to Park, his company is trying to create more events and activities for Qatar residents to familiarise themselves with Korean food and other healthy food products. He hopes to organise bigger events in Doha in the future, inviting both domestic and regional contestants.
Park noted that they also plan to participate in several festivals taking place at the Museum of Islamic Art Park and the newly opened Al Bidda Park to showcase Korean food.
About the Korean Fire Noodle Challenge at Aspire Park, he revealed that one of the winners on Thursday was able to finish eating the noodles in 19 seconds. The closest was 21 seconds.
“We timed them and whoever is the fastest, wins. Each winner of the group gets a prize from our supermarket,” Park said, adding that a grand winner gets the biggest prize.
“Usually if you never tasted the spiciness before it is impossible to eat it in 15 to 20 seconds, because it is not the normal one, we add more sauce to make it more spicy,” he noted.
The event has been receiving a positive response from the public as many people, including those who follow and watch it online live, are looking forward for the next challenge, according to Park.
“The challenge is good, we learn a lot from this experience and we hope to engage more other people as we visit schools soon,” he added.
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