The Night I Conquered East Coast Grill's Hell Pasta

On Wednesday night, Bret and I had reservations for East Coast Grill's Hell Night.  Since I love spicy food, I have gone to Hell Night many times over the years and Wednesday night was my seventh visit.  Over the years, I've made a list of rules on how to survive Hell Night.  Lesson #1 is simple and obvious - Never again try the Hell Pasta.  I tried it on my first visit to Hell Night with my sister and it scorched my taste buds.  I tried it again during my last visit and found it was still pretty unbearable.

But then when it came to making my 30 by 30 list, I decided to add finishing a plate of the Hell Pasta to my list.  After all, the whole point of the list is to challenge myself and eating the Hell Pasta would definitely be challenging!

Bret and I arrived a little late for our 5:30 PM reservation.  We were seated immediately and thankfully on the side of the restaurant away from the open kitchen and the tear-inducing spicy scents from the grill.  Bret and I already had a strategy to conquering the Hell Pasta by ordering cornbread, coleslaw and a White Russian cocktail for each of us. 

We knew that the cornbread and coleslaw would provide relief from our previous Hell Night experiences, but the White Russian idea we stole from a patron that we saw sipping on it as she finished a plate of Hell Pasta.

Before the food arrived, we signed away our rights and decided to take a "before" picture. 

The pasta arrived pretty quickly and we asked our server, Chad, for his advice.  He told us to eat the pasta quickly before the heat can really kick in.  Since he has seen many people attempt this feat, this seemed like sound advice to follow.

The bowl was filled with tender fettuccine noodles and topped with a sausage bolognese sauce.  Of course, there was also some Trinidad scorpion peppers mixed in that sauce as well. 

My strategy was to let the plate cool down for a few minutes and then I dug in.  I ate around the bowl at first since a majority of the hot peppers were in the middle of the bowl.  To be honest, the pasta wasn't too hot at first.  I ate about a quarter of the pasta before I stopped for my first sip of White Russian and this drink definitely provided sweet relief.  Bret was scarfing down the pasta like there was no tomorrow and he finished when I still had about 3/4 of the plate left. 

Honestly, I wanted to give up.  My stomach was churning and my lips were numb.  But I am fiercely competitive and I couldn't let Bret be the only one to finish the Hell Pasta so I pushed through and got the last bites down.   I can't even show the photos of me after finishing the pasta because I was a teary-eyed, snotty, sweating mess.

As soon as I was done, I went for a bite of cole slaw for cool relief and cornbread to settle my stomach.  My heart was pounding really quickly and my hands were shaking.  I started to even get a little paranoid.  But then I started to actually feel okay and managed to slowly finish one huge piece of cornbread.  As we sat there longer though, I started to feel queasy and after splashing water on my face in the bathroom, I really needed to get out of there to get some air.

I sat outside for a bit while Bret went and got some ice cream at Christina's.  I had a few bites but I couldn't really have anymore than that.  By the time we got home, Bret started to feel a little queasy too and we nursed our swollen bellies in comfy sweatpants on the couch.

So, I managed to finally tackle the Hell Pasta head on and I have a t-shirt to prove it.  I'm happy to knock another item off my 30 by 30 list, but I think I'll be going back to my Hell Night rules and avoiding the Hell Pasta...at least for a little while!

East Coast Grill is located at 1271 Cambridge Street, Cambridge in Inman Square.

Breaking One Important Rule at Hell Night

Last night, I participated in my sixth Hell Night at East Coast Grill.

My dining companions included Anna (for her third Hell Night), Bret (for his fifth Hell Night) and Craig (for his virgin Hell Night).

I should mention that awhile back, after my third Hell Night experience, I made a list of rules for Hell Night to create a tactic to challenge our heat threshold while still enjoying ourselves.  For instance, I wrote:

"...my first visit was a few years ago with my sister and we bravely tried the Hell Pasta.  We boasted that our Korean taste buds and our love of insanely spicy food could withstand anything.  The pasta made me sweat and cry, which was to be expected.  But the downside was that it singed my taste buds and everything tasted insanely spicy.  I couldn't fully appreciate my entree, which was a shame."


This resulted in Lesson No. 1, which is the most obvious - "Never again order the Hell Pasta".  And I've never ordered the Hell Pasta again....until last night.

Although Anna refused to participate, Bret, Craig and I decided to take a chance and order the pasta.  What's the point of a rule if you don't break it every once in awhile?  When it arrived, we let it cool down to room temperature while we enjoyed our other appetizers.

And finally, when we could ignore the Hell Pasta no longer, we took a bite.

Anna took lots of photographs of our reactions but out of good conscience, I cannot post pictures of my friends (or myself) of us sweating and crying with runny noses.  But let me tell you, it was painful.  But, luckily we followed Rule #7 followed by Rule #3 immediately afterwards, which helped remedy the pain.

And we left the evening thinking just one thought of East Coast Grill...

Until then, we'll see you at the next Hell Week!

East Coast Grill is located at 1271 Cambridge Street in Inman Square.



And don't forget to vote for me as Boston's Best Local Blogger here.  Polls close on December 22nd!

Boston Bloggers Who Brunch: East Coast Grill

A few months ago, I attended a lovely brunch at Lord Hobo organized by fellow food blogger Renee of Eat.Live.Blog.  Our brunch consisted of a small group of food bloggers who were there just to enjoy one of our favorite weekend meals while getting to know each other a little better.  After this first blogger brunch, Renee got an overwhelming response from other food bloggers asking to be on the list for the next blogger brunch.  With Renee's super event organization skills, the second blogger brunch took place this morning at East Coast Grill.

Because I have previously had brunch at East Coast Grill, I was really excited about this morning's brunch.  Renee put in a lot of time and effort to put together a prix fixe menu consisting of family-style appetizers and a brunch entree.  The food, per usual, was outstanding.  We had four huge family-style appetizers.

Fried Sweet Plantains with Queso Fresco and Banana-Guava Ketchup

Sweet Potato Fries with Inner Beauty Hot Sauce

Banana Rellena (Smoked Pork Stuffed Banana) with Inner Beauty Hot Sauce



Monteray Jack Grits with Molasses Glazed Grilled Banana, Pineapple,
Jalapenos, Toasted Pecans & Crispy Smoked Bacon

 Even though there was a lot of food, we never felt rushed because our server Arthur really spaced things out nicely.  We had plenty of time to chat in between appetizers.

Lara, Christine and Bret - who called himself "Mr. Fun and Fearless"

We were all excited by the time our entrees came.  Although the cornbread crusted french toast and smoked pork tostada were tempting, I went for the breakfast platter, which had a little of everything.  This huge plate was piled with cheesy scrambled eggs, black beans and rice, mango/avocado/hearts of palm salad, more sweet fried plantains, salsa roja and a grilled flour tortilla.

Breakfast Platter "In the Style of the Yucatan"

For me, the star of the plate was the delightfully refreshing salad.  I kept going back to it again and again.  I thought that the scrambled eggs could have used some heat but I easily remedied that with a few dashes of hot sauce.  I ate every last bite except for the giant tortilla, which I couldn't have finished even if I tried!

Once again, I had a lovely meal at East Coast Grill and it was definitely different from your typical brunch menu.  They also have a make-your-own Bloody Mary, which is always welcome after a late night out.  Thanks again to Renee for organizing another wonderful blogger brunch!  If you're interested in joining the next brunch, you can follow the Boston Brunchers on Twitter (@BostonBrunchers).

East Coast Grill is located at 1271 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, MA.

Fun and Fearless Friday Five

After battling a nasty cold all week, I am so ready for a weekend filled with sunshine!  As I go into the weekend, I wanted to share five things that I'm really excited about:

1.  Drinking for Charity: The Boston Lupus Charity Pub Crawl is happening this Saturday and I've been getting my liver ready for it all year long.  My friend Kim (one of the committee members) introduced me to this fun day-long event that combines drinking with raising awareness and funds for a great cause.  I've been participating in this pub crawl for three or four years now and I've been battling my cold all week for it!  To learn more about the pub crawl, please head to Kim's blog here.

One of MANY photos from last year's pub crawl.

2.  Vote for me!  The poll is still open for the Boston A-List's Best Local Blogger and I'm currently in fourth place.  If you've already voted, thank you so much...and if you haven't, please click here to vote for me.  Every vote counts until voting closes on December 22nd and I'd really appreciate your support!

3.  Boston Food Bloggers:  Speaking of blogging, are you a Boston-area food blogger?  My friend Rachel (creator of Fork it over, Boston!) has launched a new website - Boston Food Bloggers.  Her goal is to put together a resource for food and beverage bloggers in the area - to share ideas, contact information, and events.  It is pretty interesting and Rachel's put a lot of work into it...so if you get a chance, stop by and check it out!

4.  Dr. Oetker's Quattro Formaggi Pizza:  On Wednesday night, I came home to a shipment of sample of Dr. Oetker's Quattro Formaggi frozen pizza.  I'm not a big fan of frozen pizzas but I thought I'd give it a try.  While you can definitely tell that pizza wasn't homemade, the quality of the cheeses used in this pizza was pretty impressive. The combination of mozzarella, edam, emmental and blue cheese worked, even though I was first skeptical about the use of blue cheese when I read the box.  Dr. Oetker's frozen pizzas can currently be purchased in New England Shaws, Demoulas and Big Y store.

5.  Sunday Brunch:  In September, Renee of Eat.Live.Blog, organized a fabulous bloggers' brunch at Lord Hobo.  Thanks to Renee's organization, a group of us are heading to East Coast Grill for brunch this weekend.  Although I've previously had brunch there, I'm still really excited about this brunch because East Coast Grill puts on a FANTASTIC brunch.  Of course, I'll be re-capping it all here next week!

What's on plan for the weekend? Any good cooking/eating/drinking planned?

Central Bottle Wine with Guest Chef Chris Schlesinger

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East Coast Grill's Canned Beer Dinner

If you have read my previous blog posts about East Coast Grill (which can be found here or here), you know that I'm a huge fan of this restaurant.  I love it so much that I even brought B to this restaurant on Valentine's Day for brunch!  So when B and I heard that East Coast Grill was having a special menu on Monday night to celebrate 75 years of canned beer, we quickly made reservations.  You see, my close friends tease me about my strange love for Pabst Blue Ribbon tall boys.  I was drinking PBR way before it became the hipster drink that it is today, which is something I'm not sure if I should brag about or be very embarrassed about.  Either way, after participating in Monday night's tweet-up, we headed over to Inman Square for what turned out to be another fabulous dinner.

To start, we ordered some drinks.  B ordered Dale's Pale Ale.

And I ordered a beer cocktail called the Amstel Cure with Amstel Light, Domain Canton (a delicious ginger liquor) and limeade.  I was skeptical about a beer cocktail but our server talked me into it and I was glad I made this choice.  I love anything ginger and the ginger flavor went well with the tart limeade.

We snacked on their addictive spicy house pickled vegetables and perused the menu.

Since we wanted to try a few different things and there were only two entrees on the special canned beer menu (which consisted of food cooked with canned beers and food that goes well with canned beers), we decided to order a bunch of different appetizers to share.

First up was the Huge Texas Beef Bone with tangy mustard sauce, hot pepper jelly and crispy slaw.  With my aversion to eating meat on bone, this was definitely one of B's selections and he cut me off some of the rib to try.  The meat was tender but the highlight for me was the tangy mustard sauce.

At our host's suggestion, we also ordered the Grilled Homemade Andouille Sausage with Banana Pepper Relish and Grilled Cornbread.  This was definitely one of my favorite dishes and even though the photo doesn't show it well (it is hiding behind the lemon wedge), that banana pepper relish was out of this world!

Since B ordered the beef bone dish for himself, I of course ordered the Fried Wellfleet Oyster Po'boy with Tabasco Remoulade and more of the house pickles.  Although the remoulade didn't really have the kick I wanted, the oysters were fried perfectly crispy and came on the most delicious buttery roll.  Even though B isn't the biggest fan of shellfish, he couldn't resist sampling these delightful fried oysters!

And finally, off of the regular menu, we ordered the Chipotle Glazed Chicken Livers with Sweet and Sour Bacon Greens and Fried Onions.  I was infatuated with this dish because the rich chicken livers had a surprising sweet and spicy flavor from the chipotle glaze.  The richness was cut by the bacon greens and the crispy fried onions.  I am so glad that this is a regular menu item because I definitely will order this again!

Every dish was so wonderful and we were both so glad that we made a point to check out this canned beer menu.  I have never had a bad meal at East Coast Grill and Monday night was no except.  I love the casual and relaxed dining environment along with the friendly and attentive service.  Oh, and even though I didn't get a PBR that night, I did manage to snap a shot of their PBR pinata.  Maybe I need to find one of these for my next party?

East Coast Grill is located at 1271 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, MA in Inman Square.