Since its first occurrence last year in 2023, the Fire Noodle Challenge has been an event many students look forward to. This year there were over 20 participants, and many more who came to watch the challenge go down.
After paying the $5 entry fee, participants were given Buldak ramen noodles with spicy chicken flavoring.
“It does feel a bit spicy, but then it dies around like five minutes after you finish eating it,” junior Andy Liu said after winning first place in the challenge.
The top three quickest people to finish the spicy noodles were given gift bags. Liu downed his ‘two times spicy’ ramen, as the advertising on the cups states, just before those in second and third.
“It feels great to be first place,” Liu said. “I didn’t win last year, so I knew I needed to improve for this year.”
The event organizers and students in the Asian Haven club also recalled the first time it took place in 2023.
“We started last year and it was a really big hit with the student body, so we decided to do it again,” senior and Asian Haven leader Jenny Lin said. “It’s like a tradition we do every year now.”
To attract the many students who have shown interest in this event, the Asian Haven club has a method for advertising, including putting up posters around the halls of the school.
“We basically start out with seeing who’s interested and we usually try to advertise it,” senior and Asian Haven leader Iris Cheng said. “It’s open to as many people as possible because it’s funding a good cause.”
As for directly planning the event, more time and effort go into organizing the club members and completing tasks to host a successful fundraiser.
“It takes a team of people that run Asian Haven to get to this point in the fundraising,” Cheng said.
The fundraiser is another part of the tradition of the Fire Noodle Challenge, and this year they chose to support a fundraiser close to home.
“We always choose an organization that we’re going to help fund and support,” Lin said. “This year it just so happens to be the Save Chinatown organization that was extremely popular.”
Save Chinatown is a movement protesting against the construction of a new sports in Philadelphia’s Chinatown, which many believe would damage the area’s economy. Many students have joined the cause, including Lin and others from Asian Haven.
“I’m also a member of the people that helped protest against that, so we just kind of brought it up and then we’re like, yeah, let’s choose to do this,” Lin said. “And then let’s do the fire noodles again. It’s a really fun event.”
