Do wins chicken wing eating contest at ‘Taste’

From left, Nazario “Omar” Ajoste, Mike Do, and Madge Gai pose for a photo after being named the Top 3 winners of the 24th Annual Taste of the Marianas Fried Chicken eating competition last Saturday. (KIMBERLY B. ESMORES)

Mike Do came out victorious during the chicken wing eating competition at the 24th Annual Taste of the Marianas International Food Festival & Beer Garden that was held over the weekend at the Garapan Fishing Base.

Do bested nine others last Saturday night by eating 48 of 200 pieces of chicken wings to claim the title “Ina’s Kitchen Fried Chicken eating competition champion.” Do was followed closely by Nazario “Omar” Ajoste, while Madge Gai completed the top three.

Along with the title, Do took home $500 worth of gift certificates. Ajoste took home $200 in gift certificates while Gai took home $100 worth of the same prize.

“I have never felt better. Now I’m just trying to think about something sweet to eat for dessert,” said Do after receiving his award.

To prepare for the contest, Do did not eat the entire day leading up to the contest. He also watched a few videos on YouTube to get some pointers on how to get ahead of the competition.

“I don’t know that I did too much prepping. I watched a few YouTube videos on [efficient] ways to eat chicken wings and I didn’t eat anything since the night before the competition,” he said.

For those interested in joining next year’s competition, Do said he will be back next year to defend his title.

“I have to defend my crown. It was a ton of fun and thanks to everyone for putting this all together,” he said.

Chris Concepcion, Marianas Visitors Authority managing director, said in an interview that he was very happy with the outcome of the event despite plans for a celebrity eater joining the competition not pulling through.

“For the Ina’s Kitchen Fried Chicken eating competition, the turnout was great. There were nine contestants. Although nobody finished the 200 pieces, we’re glad to see the enthusiasm from the participants. Great turnout, the audience was really excited, we had a big crowd, and the audience was really cheering on our contestants,” Concepcion said.

“We were arranging with our partners in Japan to have another celebrity eater come to Saipan but unfortunately with the timing, it didn’t work out with the celebrity eater’s schedule. There were three we were supposed to bring in for this competition but all three were unable to join. However, they’ve agreed to send a celebrity eater to Saipan for next year’s eating competition. We still want to have that, we want to hype up the crowd and give our local people here the chance to compete against internationally known eaters that compete in these kinds of food challenges,” he added.

As for the turnout of Day 2 of the festival, Concepcion said it was amazing as the crowd was even larger than the first night.

“Tonight’s turnout was larger than the first night and the first night was pretty large. We’re very excited, we’re very happy with the turnout, we have two more Saturdays to go and we’re very excited,” he said.

Next Saturday, Taste of the Marianas will feature a Barbecue Cookoff and on the final Saturday of June, Taste will close off with the HANMI and NMTECH “Bisteak” Cookoff.