There was a new and very popular contest on Saturday, April 21, in Dana Dining Hall. Six four-person teams competed in a dumpling-eating contest organized by the Asian Cultural Society (ACS), all seeking to win bragging rights as the fastest dumpling-eaters. Each team was responsible for consuming 60 dumplings in total, giving 15 dumplings per competitor. If any competitor was not able to eat all 15 dumplings, there was a penalty of three seconds added time per uneaten dumpling.

As the competition began, one team of senior boys quickly took the lead. This team, made up of Taro Funabashi ’12, Sam Helm ’12, Keith Lyons ’12 and Dennis Gallagher ’12, took the lead during the entire contest and finished minutes before anyone else. After the competition, the entire winning team announced that they “were still hungry for more dumplings,” and could have easily eaten more than 15 apiece.

Other competitors struggled with the quantity of dumplings. Keith Chernin ’15 commented that he was “sweating dumplings,” and that he was unable to “see, think or breathe” after the competition because of the harmful effects of dumpling overconsumption.

There were several different strategies for the actual eating of dumplings. Some contestants ripped the dumplings in half and stuck the two halves into their mouths, others went for large bites and a small minority of the constants dipped the dumplings in water prior to eating the dumplings, in the style of Kobayashi, the professional eater and hot dog eating champion.

ACS plans to hold another contest next year, altering the rules based on what it learned this year and possibly adding something new to make the competition even more interesting.