(Disclaimer: In the following blog, the devil is metaphorical for spicy food. WacoFork does not support the devil or any of his friends).
According to the Charlie Daniels Band, the devil went down to Georgia looking for a soul to steal. Conversely, a band of WacoFork folks went to downtown Waco looking to show that old devil who was boss.
It was meant to be WacoFork's deal with the devil as two of our most brave food challengers — Toph Whisnant and Cameron Weed — fully intended to savor Hell's Kitchen Wings at Metro followed by the El Diablo tacos at Taqueria Mexican Taco.
Well, depending on how you look at it, the devil didn't show, or the devil forfeited, or the devil showed up too late to possibly defeat our band of exorcists.
Simply put, the Hell's Kitchen Wings, the hottest variety of which are made with ghost chilis, weren't available. It seems Metro was sent the wrong variety of ghost chilis and sent them back. This is actually good that a restaurant would have the integrity to demand a certain quality of ingredients and refuse to make do with anything else. Alas, I didn't get any pictures or videos of them signing the waiver before eating the extremely spicy wings.
And so someone got off the hook, not sure if it was our WacoFork boys or the devil. Instead, Whisnant and Weed consumed the hottest variety of wings available at the time. They ate them without breaking a sweat, which is not a metaphor considering they would eat food before the end of the night that did in fact cause them to break a sweat. (At least this is what I believe despite Weed's protest that he was sweating because he was wearing blue jeans).
We went through with our planned agenda, though the real WacoFork deal with the devil has been postponed until a date to be named later. The Metro folks were delightfully friendly, apologetic and accommodating as Jessica, the manager on duty, promised us free proper ghost chili Hell's Kitchen Wings when we come back to try the challenge again.
Undeterred, we headed to Taqueria Mexican Taco for El Diablos.
This led to an important discovery in the evolution of this food challenge. Weed arrived at Taqueria Mexican Taco first and translated the poster on the wall (it was in Spanish). Taqueria Mexican Taco has thrown down the food challenge gauntlet, offering special recognition — including a picture on the wall, I think — for anyone who can consume 6 El Diablo tacos in 6 minutes without consuming beverage and then wait 6 more minutes after completion before drinking anything.
Obviously, the challenge piqued the interest of our food challengers. So much so that they used Thursday night's affair as a training night. They asked that their El Diablo tacos be prepared "extra spicy," prompting Weed's recollection of a previous encounter with extra spicy Diablos.
"That was the first time since that curry in London that I uncontrollably cried," Weed said.
The ultimate moment of the evening turned out to be watching Whisnant and Weed play it cool as they waited out the 6 minutes following the completion of their tacos. The two of them sat there and acted like they had just eaten grilled-cheese sandwiches as sweat began to bead up on their foreheads and under their eyes.
A third party, who will not be named here, also took on an El Diablo taco. In the parking lot after the challenge he made his confession.
"Those tacos were hot as … "
I'll leave it to you to fill in the blank.
