wing challenge

it's monday...

and it's foggy... and with a forecast of rain later this evening and the rest of the week....

what a triple whammy.. lol

on the flip side, it reminds me of cameron highlands back in malaysia. :)

so this weekend, i was very much inspired by man vs. food's host, adam richman in one of his episodes on the travel channel: san jose's hot wing challenge. i took on a challenge of my own: blazin' hot wings from buffalo wild wings. (oo they have a cool website)

this whole thing started with nothing interesting to watch on foodnetwork, so i changed to the travel channel and it was a man vs. food marathon. then the san jose's hellfire challenge came on: he had to eat a dozen of wings coated in a lethal sauce that contains about 6 ounces of habanero pepper powder at SmokeEaters hot wings in under 10 minutes. that's equivalent to half a habanero pepper per wing. what's excruciating is probably the rules: no napkins, no drinks, no condiments and then you'd have to wait for five minutes after you are done eating. i thought that was pretty brutal.

photo taken from man vs. food website

i asked ryan if i would be able to take on that kind of challenge but it did look a lot painful though. so with all the talk of chicken wings and stuff, i started craving for some of the good stuff and decided to try out the blazin' hot wings from buffalo wild wings. and oh i did crave for onion rings too which they have... been watching too much of diners, drive-ins and dives.

if you are wondering what is blazin hot wings, it is the hottest sauce they have at this chain restaurant. ryan and i ordered six of each for dinner: asian zing, caribbean jerk and blazin' hot wings.

we ordered it to go. i checked the boxes and they actually put a warning label on the box for the blazin' hot wings. it was pretty funny and i didn't think it was serious: keep away from eyes, pets and children.

my first bite into the blazin' wing was a surprise. i didn't think much of it at first but it started building pretty rapidly. it was freaking spicy.

after first two bites, i searched for a glass of cold drink to sooth the burning sensation in my mouth.

after several more, i caved in and asked for a glass of milk.

and i usually don't need that kind of thing. at the end of the first wing, my nose was running and i could feel the burn on my lips.

and i'm not a wuss when it comes to spicy food - i grew up in malaysia eating lots of spicy food.

well ryan on the other hand,  haha it was funny. he can eat pretty spicy stuff too since he grew up in the south. his first bite, his response was "it's spicy but it's alright". i was thinking to myself, there is no way i would lose to him in terms of tolerating spicy-ness! i warned him though the spiciness does grow over time. he just waved his hand like it was nothing.....

 

but.. he started having hiccups which is usually what happens when he is having something too spicy. and his nose was running too! hah! to be honest, i was secretly happy when he did.. cos i didn't feel too much of a wuss!

 

we each had two more of the blazin' wings each which actually didn't taste as spicy as the first one after i had one of the other flavors. i thought the spicy-ness mellowed a lil... but i also started dipping the wing in the blue cheese dressing. so i can't tell if it was the dressing or my taste buds been numbed by the first wing. lol.

 

if you are wondering how spicy it is compared to other peppers, i actually found an interesting article that compares this sauce with some of the hottest things around on the scoville scale: scoville scale chart for hot sauce and hot peppers. it is ranked just below the habanero peppers at a scale of 200,000 to 350,000 and about 70 times hotter than a jalapeno. if you are wondering what scoville scale is. it is actually  a measurement of the spicy heat of a chili pepper according to its capsaicin content.

 

ryan thinks that we should definitely do this again. i had to think twice before agreeing to it... i am actually still feeling the after effects. after last night, i still feel like there is something spicy in my tummy which is totally weird. but since i can't lose to a southern boy in terms of tolerance towards spicy food and plus although it did burn, it burned in an oddly good way.