Man Vs. Food

Jameil and I just got back from The Vortex, our go-to burger restaurant in Little 5 Points. Between the two of us, we've had just about every burger on the menu. One notable exception is the Elvis burger which, features peanut butter, bacon and fried bananas... Nope think I'm gonna pass on that. Anyway, today's burger was called "Hell Burger"

Sounds hot, right? It had habanero relish, pepper jack cheese and was topped with a roasted jalapeno pepper.  Delicious, if you ask me. I like it hot. I'm the type that'll try any hot sauce on the table, or the type that adds red pepper to just about everything I cook.Or the type that will eat pour jalapeno juice into my ground turkey when I'm making salsa burgers. Yep, I don't mind a little heat, in fact the more the merrier. I've had a burger called "El Diablo" that also claimed to be really hot, but it was nothing. I haven't really found much food that's too hot for me.

Except for tonight. I took a bite out my hell burger and felt the heat. But it was a good heat. The jack cheese and the habanero relish were delicious and spicy. Nothing too bad yet. I ate some fries and took a sip of my beer, then I went for another bite. This time, I got some of the jalapeno. Nothing... no heat. It was just a regular old delicious bite.Tried some more fries, then went to take another bite. Before I could get it my my mouth, I started to feel strange. My mouth was burning like crazy, my throat was burning, my eyes were watering. Okay, this thing might be a little hot. So I backed off for a minute. Drinking water didn't help, eating fries made it worse, beer was not a good idea. I actually got defeated by a spicy burger.

I had to bring the rest of the burger home, but without the roasted jalapeno. Although it pained me to admit it, that joint was too hot for me. Man vs. Food?  Food has won this round. But I'll be back!!!