Chabaa Thai Crowns New Spice King

Nine healthy eaters pitted themselves against each other and the kitchen at Tuesday night in a display of spicy food mastery.

Sean Gill won the Main Street restaurant's fifth spicy Thai food contest in a three-round slugfest of eaters from in and around the Manayunk area.

"Internally, I feel devastated, but psychologically I feel strong as an ox," Gill said. "We eat a lot of spicy food at home... so we tried to spice it up as much as possible at every turn, and try to come in with no questions about it."

A Roxborough resident, Gill finished first with a score of 95 points, ahead of Freya Zork (91 points), and his own roommate, Mark McShea (87 points). 

Following a throughout February, Chabaa Thai announced (though one couldn't make it). Judged by Chabaa Thai owner Moon Krapugthong, Denise Nakano from NBC 10, and Amy Strauss from The Town Dish.com, the eaters faced off with Thai sausage salad, tom saab soup, and green curry—each dish with ever-increasing heat levels.

Zork qualified for the finals with the highest preliminary score. After spending the past five years in Louisiana, she grew accustomed to the hot food. She finished second on Tuesday, and said the experience was wholly unique.

"This was way more intense than the early round... I love the spice experience, and it's hilarious that they are doing this," the East Falls resident said. "Though the qualifying was hot, this is the spiciest thing I ever ate."

Aside from the preliminary rounds, getting to the contest was a challenge for Jason Howie. He dashed from Northern New Jersey from a job interview at 3:30 p.m. to get back to Philly for the contest.

"Luckily the traffic worked for me, I was able to make it on time..." he said. "This was impressive. I'll be hurting for a while from this one."

Howie failed to place in the finals, but felt pretty good about his job chances.

For the win, Gill received $500 in cash, and a $500 donation to his charity of choice—the Ronald McDonald House of Philadelphia. Zork and McShea received $300 and $100, respectively, split in half between gift cards and cash.

Disclosure: Sam Scavuzzo is friends with Gill and McShea.