Hey there spice fans,
We are happy to announce the Star and Crescent’s first ever Hell Night! Inspired by the famously fiery feasts of the Cambridge restaurant East Coast Grill, we hope to bring together Wesleyan’s lovers of spicy food for a truly special meal. While we guarantee we can challenge even the most seasoned heat-eaters with our spiciest options, there will be something for almost everyone (with that being said, all options will be at least mildly spicy, meaning there will not be non-spicy dining options). So if you like your food to have a kick, this is the meal for you!
FIRST WE MUST LEARN SCIENCE
The standard for gauging how spicy something is, is the Scoville Heat Unit scale (SHUs), which designates a rating for peppers and sauces based on the amount of capsaicin they contain. Now capsaicin is the wonderful little compound that makes things spicy. It blocks calcium receptors in mucus membranes in your mouth, creating the sensation of heat (I’m paraphrasing something I read years ago here, so don’t quote me on that). Your standard jalapeño is generally about 2,000 SHUs while the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion pepper (the hottest pepper in the world) clocks in around 1.2 million SHUs.
THE MEAL
Your spice journey will begin with a little game of chance: falafel roulette. Your server will bring your table a plate with one ball of falafel per person. While most of them will contain a jalapeño pepper, one will contain a habanero, and one will contain a bhut jolokia (ghost pepper). However, if anyone at the table would prefer some degree of certainty as to what they are getting, they can ask the server to plate theirs separately.
Next, we have the entrée which will consist of a Caribbean spice-rubbed chicken or tofu, aromatic couscous, cabbage slaw, and one of the pepper sauces from our selection:
Orange and Pineapple Pepper Sauce (Mild) – Habanero-based with a tangy twist, this will be our most mild option, save opting out of a sauce at all. Despite being the mildest sauce we will be offering, it still packs quite a punch.
Traditional Garlic Pepper Sauce (Medium) – Incorporating Scotch Bonnets (~250,000 SHUs) and bhut jolokia (~1 million SHUs), this sauce is not to be taken lightly. Garlicy with a zest of lime, it has a savory bite that will likely leave you sweating.
Hellfire Pepper Sauce (HOT – WAIVER REQUIRED) – It doesn’t get hotter than this. Featuring the spiciest pepper pod on this blue marble, the Moruga Scorpion (1.2 million SHUs), we guarantee there isn’t anything nearby that can beat this food-challenge level of heat. Combining a traditional array of Caribbean peppers, this sauce is bound to be used sparingly. ANYONE INTERESTED IN TRYING THE SAUCE MUST SIGN A WAIVER.
For dessert, we will be serving a milk chocolate cake with pepper chocolate garnished chocolate mousse. Milk will be offered, but will cost an additional $1.
THE CAUSE
As part of the Star and Crescent’s fundraising week, Hell Night will help contribute to a charitable cause through donations. We will give further details about the week’s fundraisers when we publish the menu.
We sincerely hope to share this special meal with as many people as possible, and will be expanding our dining room to seat more people. We hope people will join us in sitting for the meal as spicy food is best shared with good company! However, we will be offering to-gos, excluding our spiciest options.
WHERE: 185 High St. Alpha Delta Phi
WHEN: Monday Dinner, doors open at 5pm
If anyone has any questions, please don’t hesitate to email either of the stewards, DJ Lemieux dlemieux@wesleyan.edu or Susannah Clark srclark@wesleyan.edu!
See you there!!!