A viral video shows a young man shirtless and in clear pain on a London sidewalk after trying a restaurant's "Hottest Curry Challenge." Bengal Village, the challenger creator, boasts of a 72-chili curry and multiple daunting dishes, but the agony might not be worth the pain.
The first warning is the server who comes out wearing a gas mask.
Daniel takes the Hottest Curry Challenge
Video footage spreading across social media Friday shows Daniel, a young man who appears confident at first, trying a spoonful of chili brought to him by the masked server. After one taste, he pauses and begins coughing. He takes a drink of his beverage, no longer smiling.
The video cuts to restaurant owner Raj walking out to Daniel, who is down and shirtless on the sidewalk across the street, with a glass of mango lassi. Raj spends the rest of the video desperately trying to assure Daniel that the heat will wear off.
"I swear to god, you'll be alright," Raj says.
He estimates that after the 15 minutes that Daniel has already suffered, another 10 will see him on his feet. Especially after he drinks that mango lassi.
"Danny, please, just listen to me," he begs near the end of the clip. "I know I'm not a doctor."
Daniel did not appear to feel reassured by his words, too consumed by the spice to do anything but sweat and try to keep pressure off his rectum.
It may also not reassure him to know that his pain brought amusement to millions on X and Reddit, where commenters joked about what the curry did to him.
"I ain’t eating anything that turns me homeless," said Redditor u/WildBuns1234.
X user @rrenithrevenger wrote that the video left them "screaming, cause the sh*t got his pants sagging."
Is it worth the free meal?
The Bengal Village website advertises the challenge on its blog, offering a free meal for the whole table to anyone who can finish this curry within 15 minutes. There's also a disclaimer.
"We take no responsibility for any after effects," it reads.
A report by The Standard says that this curry is made from "72 varieties of chilli" that are "ground up into a powder and cooked off with mustard seeds, fenugreek, a certain type of cumin and so on."
Reviewer Josh Barrie does not recommend it, describing an upsetting experience.
"I wouldn’t bother doing this if it wasn’t for work," he wrote. "I don’t understand why anyone would, actually. Apparently one guy who tried it was almost hospitalised; another trier was found minutes later rolling around on the floor of the disabled toilet, being sick."
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