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After so many years of eating the spiciest food I could get my taste buds on, my palate has become conditioned to handle a lot of foods that would send the average person sprinting for the nearest water fountain (provided they're at a restaurant that doesn't serve beverages of any sort). So, whenever a restaurant boasts about serving a dish so spicy that most people wouldn't dare cram it into their pansy-ass mouths, I'm always willing to give it a try.

My latest adventure in devouring the kind of food that requires you to sign a waiver absolving the restaurant of any responsibility for the intestinal chaos that is to follow went down at the Brick Lane Curry House in Manhattan. There you will find a dish called phaal, which they tout as a curry so absurdly hot, the chef has to wear a gas mask while preparing it. You might remember it from an episode of Man v. Food a few years back.

EatMeDaily

Just like mom used to make.

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Food so hot that it hurts just to cook it? Why wouldn't I put that in my mouth?

Armed with nothing more than a sweatband (we'll get to that later), a video camera and a diminutive sidekick who goes by the name of Gladstone, I made my way to Brick Lane Curry House in hopes of defeating the terrifying Phaal Challenge. Along the way, I learned some valuable life lessons. For example ...