I had a similar thing happen. It happened once when eating sushi (on a ball of rice), but it has happened with other foods as well. It would feel like I had food stuck in my lower throat, and I would hiccup involuntarily until it went away. I found out that I had scarring around the sphincter between my esophagus and my stomach. This is likely caused by acid reflux. It got bad enough to where some food got stuck in that transition, and caused a backup. If I tried to drink water, it would fill my esophagus like a beaker until it hit my gag reflex, then I would vomit the water back out. Saliva eventually fills the esophagus as well, so every 20 minutes my body would convulse & whatever was in the esophagus would be thrown up. I spent one sleepless night, throwing up every 20 minutes or so. The next morning I went to the doctor, who immediately scheduled me a same day appointment with a specialist. They put me under partial anesthesia (I needed to be awake enough to respond to their direction), then ran a scope down my throat & through my esophagus to clear the obstruction & break up the scar tissue.
It still happens occasionally, but not to the point where I have had to go back to the doctor. I have found that dry rice and pasta are the biggest catalysts for this problem. However, chicken and steak have gotten stuck, too.
FYI, the doctor told me to get to a physician asap if I get something stuck again... the esophagus can easily tear, which becomes a open chest surgery to fix.
Best advice... chew your food longer. If you have narrowed any part of your esophagus with scarring, then you need to get your food in smaller chunks to make it through the channel.
http://heartburn.about.com/cs/articles/a/esoph_stricture.htm
