I ate 'world's hottest curry'

Thomas George faces scary spice dish laced with Carolina Reaper chillies

- THOMAS GEORGE

THIS week, I ate the 'world's hottest' curry at Zouk Tea Bar & Grill in Manchester city centre.

To coincide with National Chilli Day on Thursday, the Chester Street restaurant brought back its Carolina Reaper curries for one week only.

Until recently, the Carolina Reaper was the world's hottest chilli pepper reaching a 1.64 million score on the Scoville scale.

To put that into perspective, Cayenne peppers have a score of 50,000 while Habanero peppers boast a 350,000 score.

I was one of the foolish few who agreed to take on the challenge in a quest for notoriety. Normally, I'm quite good with spicy food, but while my tolerance is high, I do have my limits.

Walking into Zouk, I'm greeted by a gleeful member of staff who explains that the last person to attempt the challenge spent the afternoon keeled over in the toilets. A menu is placed before me. It comes with a waiver I'm told I must sign.