We Eat It So You Don't Have To: Al's Pancake Challenge

By Bridget O'Donnell

'We Eat It' is a regular series where we try the latest off-beat eats.

Fancy yourself as a competitive eater? In case you hadn't heard, Al's Diner is giving breakfast food aficionados an offer of five pancakes and a classic milkshake for RMB120 for FREE if you can eat the lot in 10 minutes. Those who complete the challenge get their name written on a board for all to see. Eternal glory is at stake here, people.

But these aren’t your average pancakes — they’re massive. Like, make your iPhone 6 Plus look miniscule in comparison massive.

Tim Cook, eat your heart out.

Al's recently invited That's and fellow expat rags local media to partake in the challenge. We knew what we were in for, but that didn't stop us from being overwhelmed when the plate of flapjacks arrived at our table.

Don't be fooled by the smiles: It's all nervous laughter here.

We realized, perhaps too late, that a knife and fork weren’t going to cut it, as we watched other challengers grab the pancakes with their hands and eat them like burgers.
Al's Pancake Challenge taught us new, horrifying ways to eat the breakfast classic.

One savage diner even went full-on Kobayashi-style, dipping his pancakes in water to soften them.
We won't say which challenger dipped their pancakes in water, but their name rhymes with 'Nope.'

Needless to say, we failed. In fact, only Kobayashi's protegé was just about able to complete it, with seconds to spare.

Al’s Diner might have gotten the better of us with this carby challenge, but we’ll still lay waste to their excellent kimchi fried rice and Korean-style chicken wings on our next visit.

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Up for the challenge? Click "Read more" below for more details.