In the summer of 2013, Cash and I will be travelling across the American states in search of culinary challenges. Between us, we aim to win plenty o' T-Shirts and have our names blazoned upon the walls of fame. From now until then, we need to book our tickets, work out a route and indulge in some pre-arrival challenges here. Luckily, one of us has a food outlet of their own, where new and exciting recipes are always being invented and one of us has a stomach of steel ready for the spicy ones. We shall be updating this blog with our home and away conquests and triumphs, as well as stories of food babies, food contractions and food comas!

Sunday 16 December 2012

25 Ghost chilli-sauce on a tiny cheeseburger

So Cash came round on Saturday 15th December, with a small ice cream tub of red devil-like chillis. Adding tomatoes, spices, onion and garlic to the 25 little chillis, he heated up the concoction until it resembled hot molten lava. I then spread no more than a flattened tablespoon onto my burger. The first couple of bites were ok - the burger going down pretty quickly. Then it hit me...tears started streaming down my face, nose was running and my lips and tongue began to swell. Cash had previously only tried a BIG pin prick's worth and was in a bit of pain and had to go outside to cool down! So I started to walk around the flat, pacing (ahem...Jumping - Cash), downing pints of water but to no avail. I then chilled for about 10mins before proceeding to taker the next three bites - this was slightly easier as the numbing was still present but then the reaction started again - this time I tried a drop of milk but then remembered that I hated milk and it made me heave, making the spicy sauce come up again! Lying down helped a lot, as did Elf on TV. Then about 30mins later, when my mouth had cooled down as had the burger, I finished it off, after having to scrape off quite a bit of the sauce1
CONCLUSION: I am now really nervous about next year! I have been a cocky little git and Cash's sauce has shown me the error of my ways!! Must get into training soon and work out how to replenish my stomach lining!
Pictures and video to follow!

Monday 5 November 2012

The Phaal Curry - 1,000,000 scoville units

To start off, let me introduce you to the Scoville scale - the measurement used to work out how hot a chilli is. Basic peppers are at the bottom and spicier varieties are at the top.

People that know me know that a vindaloo is my standard level of curry spice and since moving down to Devon, I soon became familiar with the South Devon Chilli Farm with the Bhut Jolokia chilli (which was the hottest for a while). The first time I tried that, let's just say that I experienced severe stomach cramps, the sweats and tongue burn but...I am now used to it and need something else. With that in mind, you can imagine the way my eyes lit up when my mum showed me this yesterday.

I have always seen the Phaal on the menu but never attempted one, especially when in public plus The Brick Lane Phaal Curry Challenge has been featured on Man vs Food and the chef preparing it had to wear a frickin' gas mask and taste it with his eyes closed so he wouldn't burn his face off! The curry featured on the show had about 10 different chillis in it including the Bhut Jolokia and the Ghost Chilli (which is now said to be the hottest in the world). I definitely want to try this challenge but just to get me into the practise, I shall be making and trying my very own Chicken Phaal Curry this month. I'll be honest - I am nervous and worried that I won't be able to attend school on the Monday but I need to practise. My hope is to attempt as many of the spicy challenges in America as possible as well as a few of the quantity ones so I need to start preparing my stomach lining now! 



Should I be scared?