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Local competitive eater Sarah Ow doesn’t like to waste food

SINGAPORE — Looking at her slim 1.68m tall frame, you wouldn’t think flight stewardess Sarah Ow could wolf down 10 plates of chicken rice in under 30 minutes. But that is exactly what the 28-year-old did in April, which captured the attention of the local community of competitive eaters.

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SINGAPORE — Looking at her slim 1.68m tall frame, you wouldn’t think flight stewardess Sarah Ow could wolf down 10 plates of chicken rice in under 30 minutes. But that is exactly what the 28-year-old did in April, which captured the attention of the local community of competitive eaters.

She followed the achievement by devouring a 3.2kg burger on her own. And even took on and crushed Mediacorp Radio Class 95FM’s Justin Ang in a challenge to finish off 10 plates of nasi lemak in less than an hour, which she did effortlessly. “I’ve always been a big eater as a child and I never noticed it, as it was normal to eat a lot in my family,” Ow told TODAY.

“I grew up seeing my father eating two to three plates of rice each meal. When we eat out, we would take away another portion and continue our meal at home.” What’s more, these huge meals didn’t stop her from constantly snacking before and in-between meals. “It was only when I started going out for meals with friends that I started getting shocked comments like ‘you can eat a lot,’ or ‘you’re still hungry?’” she added.

(Ow, who weighs only 50kg now, used to struggle with her weight.) “I used to be overweight during my primary and secondary school days. I became very self-conscious of my appearance and started to count my calorie intake during my tertiary years,” she shared.

A strict diet helped her lose the extra weight, but not her appetite. “I am still fairly new to the competitive eating scene and, so far, I’m happy to say that I have not put on any additional weight,” Ow said when asked how she was able to maintain her slim figure. She admitted she doesn’t exercise much, but said her flying schedule helps her keep her food intake and weight in check. “I don’t eat when I work because I dread reapplying my lipstick,” she quipped, adding that she doesn’t train actively for the competitions. “I’ve learnt of some techniques on improving eating capacity — such as drinking two gallons of water in one go to expand the stomach — but I don’t do them because I love my food and I want to enjoy eating it.

“So instead of training using such techniques, I prefer to eat big portions of food during my meal time.”

And, according to Ow, this innately large appetite was never an issue on date nights. She puts it down to eating being Singaporeans’ favourite activity. “Date nights usually revolved around eating and it has worked in my favour a lot more than kill my partners’ interests,” she affirmed.

“My husband has always acknowledged my seemingly excessive eating habits. It seems what has been said about opposites attracting holds true: He loves seeing a myriad of food on the table but only picks on every single dish, while I literally end up clearing the whole table.”

Well, since a love for food should be approached with equal abandon, it sounds like they are made for each other. Besides, it doesn’t seem like they will be competing over that last slice of chocolate cake.

Q: Are you a big eater when dining out for leisure?

A: Most of the time, I cook at home, but when I’m dining out, I love going to buffets. My friends love to do hawker buffets with me too. We would order a full table of our local favourites and they always know that I will end up finishing everything. I hate to waste food.

Q: How much of a discerning foodie are you?

A: I wouldn’t go as far to say that I’m a foodie, but I could help suggesting places that I’ve tried that could appeal to people who have similar tendencies towards food. I enjoy cooking as well. Usually, I would try to cook a dish that I really enjoy. For example, my husband loves this oyster mee sua from Taiwan and missed it when we came back home. So I decided to recreate it with oysters and mussels, and he loved it.

Q: Are there foods you love to eat that would give you an advantage in challenges?

A: I wouldn’t say so. Appreciating certain foods does not necessarily give you an edge over others in the same competition. It’s like saying if someone enjoys and loves swimming, they would be at an Olympic standard. That’s not always true.

Q: Are there foods you like that would be tough to handle in a competition?

A: I love yogurt, cheese, mayonnaise and eggs. The taste fatigue or the monotony of these foods would make it tough to eat an insane amount. After that your palate gets overwhelmingly bored and nausea will kick in.

Q: What would you absolutely not eat in a competition or otherwise?

A: Snails. Most likely snails and worms. I shun invertebrates like how some people can’t stand cockroaches. I can’t take spicy food very well either.

Q: What are three of your favourite dishes?

A: I love my hawker fare a bit too much … If I had to think of three right off the bat, it would be the chee kway from Bedok Chee Kway (Bedok Interchange), Fu Shun Shao La Mian Jia’s special order “fat” char siew at Maxwell Food Centre and the century egg porridge with raw egg from Chai Chee Porridge at Fengshan Market.

Q: Isn’t competitive eating contrary to celebrating a love for food?

A: They are different. Competitive eating is a sport, while a love for food is about appreciating the ingredients, the cooking craft and how it engages the senses of the diner. For me, my love for food got me attracted to these food challenges. Just early this April, I was in London feeling homesick and was craving for local food. I came across a photo of a 4.5kg (bowl) of laksa food challenge posted by the Food League Singapore and I got excited. I knew I had to try it. Though I didn’t get back in time to (take on) the challenge, it piqued my interest in eating competitions. I went on to find out more about eating techniques and overseas eating competitions. Later, I took on my first eating challenge and successfully polished off ten plates of chicken rice.

Watch Sarah Ow take on three aspiring big eaters in a Fresh-Mex Taco Challenge at Barrio by MexOut on Saturday (June 4) at noon. Catch the exclusive ‘live’ stream at https://www.facebook.com/todayonlineT/.

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