Earning money for eating soup, the universal comfort food par excellence, is like getting paid for getting a hug. But this is the case at La Perla del Pacífico, a traditional Ecuadorian food restaurant in Madrid that has launched a challenge with which, as the headline says, the winner wins a prize of €1,000 for eating an encebollado.
This traditional dish is considered one of the five best fish soups in the world according to the Taste Atlas guide and was declared Intangible Cultural Heritage of Ecuador this summer.
With this curious challenge, which celebrates its second edition, the restaurant aims to cross borders and that “more and more people of different nationalities try our signature dish,” they explain.
Rules and how to participate in the encebollado challenge
In the style of challenges of other restaurants such as Melo’s the key is mainly in the amount of food and the time you have to eat it. In this case it is eating 1kg of encebollado (accompanied by a glass of drink) in less than 12 minutes.
To participate, all you have to do is follow them on social networks and order a plate of encebollado throughout the month of September at any of their 13 locations in Madrid. With each dish you will receive a ticket and on October 2 each restaurant will draw lots among the tickets they have, from which the 13 finalists will be chosen (one per restaurant).
The grand final will be held on October 5 at its restaurant in Ascao, 22 Francisco Villaespesa St. We will have to wait until then to find out if there is anyone capable of beating the record of the winner of the first edition: 7 minutes and 15 seconds.
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