Ah, a childhood friendly game turned into a fiercely competitive eating contest — that sounds right up my alley. Couples on TikTok have been participating in an eating and running challenge to see who can eat the most of a mukbang shared meal. This particular food challenge reminds me of the rock-paper-date night trend, where each round the winner gets to choose where to go get a drink, appetizer, main course, and dessert. Although the date night trend could get pretty competitive, you will not find this new trend to be a silly, relaxing activity with your partner.
As most of these silly TikTok trends have it, this challenge is most popular with couples. A few weeks ago, I also wrote on the TikTok trend where girlfriends were trying — but failing — to match their boyfriends eating pace. With some research, I found that though men and women chew at similar paces, men take bigger bites and chew harder, which allows them to eat faster. However, with the rock-paper-food challenge, I’ve seen this go completely out the window with women demolishing huge portions of the food. Never underestimate a woman who wants to win.
Of course, this food challenge is in no way limited to couples. I was in tears laughing at @sabrie_t's video, which has gone viral with 27 million views and 4.7 million likes. Sabrie plays with a six year-old, maybe a brother or a kid she babysits, and as soon as the boy loses the first round, he runs wailing and crying the whole way. So maybe stick with the adults on this one.
What are the rules of the rock-paper-food challenge?
To start, two people get a bunch of food from a fast food restaurant. It’s usually something that could feed two people, like a couple of burgers, some chicken nuggets, a side of fries, and definitely a drink — although I did see someone do it with a giant bag of crawfish. Just like the childhood game, you rock-paper-scissors-shoot, and the loser has to run to a point some 50 yards or so away and back, while the other person eats as much of the food as they can. The faster you run, the less time your opponent has to eat. The catch is that as the game progresses, it doesn’t feel that good to run after you eat, or you might not want to eat after you run. Use sauces at your own risk — they can moisten the food to make it easier to eat, but you’d be surprised how time-consuming it is to open the packet.