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.



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