Restaurant: Sigiri, 91 First Ave.
Dish: devilled grilled (with choice of fish or meat), $15.95
Pepper: ghost chili
Influenced by a mélange of cuisines and closely related to Indian but with more kick, Sri Lankan food is prepared slowly and eaten spicy hot. Fiercely spicy hot. At Sigiri in the East Village, they refer to the top of their heat scale as “Sri Lankan spicy,” which is a notch up from “very, very spicy,” but chances are they won’t let you order that level. “You have to be ready for it,” says a server, as serious as the heart attack they don’t want you to have. Either way, devilled grilled, a dish in which fish or meat is saturated in ghost chilies, other peppers and chili flakes, is the city’s hottest, while still managing to be enjoyable. Past the heat, you’ll taste layers of flavors within.
Eilon Paz
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Restaurant: Miss Lily’s, 132 W. Houston St.
Dish: Hellshire-style fried whole snapper with escovitch vegetables, $29
Pepper: Scotch bonnet
Bonus: Hot wait staff!
The dish that will knock your socks off is Hellshire-style fried whole snapper with escovitch vegetables (slices of red, green and orange Scotch bonnets, carrot and onions in vinegar). These are the spiciest pickled veggies ever, and in case the ones on your fish aren’t enough, you get an extra jar on the side, too.
Eilon Paz
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Restaurant: Ayada Thai, 7708 Woodside Ave., Elmhurst, Queens
Dish: som tum (papaya salad) with dried shrimp, $7
Pepper: Thai bird’s eye chili
The heat factor “Thai spicy” at Ayada can be applied to many menu items at the Elmhurst restaurant, but it’s not for everyone. In fact, here where Thai chilies and their wicked brethren, bird chilies, reign, even mild has personality. The crunchy strips of green papaya are cooling, but it’s the zippy bird chilies that elevate this dish to the highest ranks of the city’s hottest.
Zandy Mangold
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Restaurant: Hunan Kitchen of Grand Sichuan, 42-47 Main St., Flushing, Queens
Dish: chicken with hot red pepper, $12.95
Pepper: dried Sichuan red chilies
Hunan serves up some of the most delicious and hottest versions of two neighboring Chinese cuisines. Go for the excellent chicken with hot red pepper. It’s loaded with dried Sichuan red chilies and Hunan chilies, and it’s a favorite at this perpetually packed place. Group dining is ideal for spicy exploration here, with a Lazy Susan to make sharing platters easy.
Zandy Mangold
5 of 6
Restaurant: Bar Bruno, 520 Henry St., Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn
Dish: Mama O’s kimchi tacos, $15
Pepper: Korean chilies
Bar Bruno serves tacos with chili dry-rubbed steak and seriously spicy, incredibly balanced kimchi by local favorite Mama O’s. Try a bite or two without any meat to see what we mean. The tacos are best washed down with a Cubana Michelada. It’s beer-based, served with a chili-salted rim, over ice with a generous amount of tabasco, house-made salsa and lime.
Eilon Paz
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TOO HOT TO HANDLE
Restauant: Brick Lane Curry House, 306-308 E. Sixth St.; 212-979-8787
Dish: P’haal
While we picked the spiciest dishes that are actually edible, we’d be remiss if we didn’t give a shout-out to the city’s most challenging: Brick Lane Curry House’s P’haal. A scorching blend of tomatoes, spices and your choice of protein or veggie ($15-$21), its searing heat derives from the two hottest chilies known to man: ghost and scorpion.
Some jokingly claim that the name p’haal is based on the word “phallus,” as anyone foolish enough to try it is only out to prove their manhood.
Developed in restaurants along England’s Brick Lane curry row, the NYC version has been served here since 2002. The dish is so hot that Brick Lane offers a free beer and a “certificate of honour” to anyone who can finish it.
“It’s an excruciatingly hot curry, more pain and sweat than flavor,” says manager Wahith Biag, who claims he can discern the other ingredients beneath the dish’s punishing heat.
Every week, as many as a dozen people order this crazy curry, seeking entry into the P’haal of Fame. Many finish. But some — like a man last week — throw up at the table. Others make it to the porcelain god. We just hope they tip well.
Nathaniel Shannon
