RIP "Curry Hell" restaurateur
Abdul Latif, beloved owner of the Ruplai Restaurant in Newcastle upon Tyne, has died at age 52. He was famous for his kindness (he offered free meals for five years to British soldiers who served in Iraq) as well as his "world's hottest curry," called Curry Hell.
From an advertisement:
If you have tried Curry Hell, please tell us about it in the comments.(Click on thumbnail for enlargement)
Anyone finishing the full portion of Curry Hell will not be charged for that dish. He or she will also be presented with a certificate of achivement. Anyone failing to finish the portion will be charged £6.95 for the dish. Should anyone die in the attempt, the cost of the dish will be incurred by the next of kin."
Mr. Latif and his establishment will not be responsible if your arsehole falls out the bottom of your trouser legs after eating Curry Hell.
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Never tried Curry Hell, but did try something possibly as hot: a curry dish served at a restaurant in Vancouver that was so hot, you had to sign a waiver to order it.
The restaurant was located on Kingsway and Rupert, if I recall correctly.
How hot was it? So hot I started sweating even before I ordered...
How sad! I ate in their when I was younger - although I never had the cohones to try Curry Hell, however anything which could defeat legions of drunken Geordies is frankly terrifying. I did have a friend who had a genetic immunity to capsaicin who finished one - he didn't really understand what the fuss was about...
I never tried it but I know someone who had a taste of it : stupidly, ridiculously hot. Simply an enormous amount of chilli put in it - not designed as anything other than a trial by capsicin. Certainly not high cuisine. Like licking the bar of an electric fire was the description.
Lord Harpole was also famous for his advertorial inclusions in the popular British journal, 'Viz Comic'. Like South Park crossed with the the Eagle multiplied by lots of awful Ben Stiller films raised to the power of Python (monty, not Guido).
The company my brother works for got someone to attempt the curry hell for a bet. There's video on youtube if you want to see what it's like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZN2IqSkh0vI&eurl=http://www.bragster.com/bet/5872-survive-curry-hell
(warning: strong geordie accents!)
Awwwww, shite man!
I had a bad experience with Chicken Phal at a curry restaurant in London. The next day was painful, to say the least.
I wish I could try it, I love intestinal incineration.
That video was unwatchable because of the stupid fookin' music.
any Ghibli fans out there should remember Ghiblies Episode 2 featuring a Japanese Curry Hell - in that one the proprietor pays you (1000 yen (~$9) I believe) if you finish the dish.
DGHILTON, I wanna know which restaurant that was. Can you remember anything else about it? Was it an Indian-Chinese place? Maybe this one?
http://chowtimes.com/2007/11/chili_pepper_house_on_kingsway.html
Please let me know. I wanna go there with some friends and see which of us can endure the most pain.
#4, my thoughts exactly. He gets mentioned in just about every issue of VIZ. Not much else to say -- sorry to see him go.
those VIZ ads were real??
damn, i would have tried it. But i always thought they were a joke.
#9 jeesus, why even bother getting up in the morning if a little bit of old-school hip hop is enough to render an otherwise uninteresting video actually
un-watchable, and indeed enough to write to the internet complaining about it.
"dear the-internet, i don't like stuff, more stuff please."
thanks for sharing tho, i'm sure.
That's a real shame, he was a fantastic guy and always a genial host and a great character. I live only a few minutes walk away from his restaurant, although it's been a while since I was there. The most memorable night there was when he had a rack of hats to choose from, which you could wear during your meal, and it was always fun being there.
I once tried a tiny bit of the Curry Hell, and it was like tear gas! When someone asked one of the waiters "Do you eat this?" the reply was "Of course not".
He was a friend to the guys and a gentleman to the girls.
"He was a friend to the guys and a gentleman to the girls." (Bears repeating.)
A hell of an experience .. and really the wrong choice to make the day before our flight. We couldn't finish the curry hell between the four of us - we did get an autographed VIZ tho!
A funny, funny guy .. even if he did keep hitting on my wife.
There's an Indian place in my town (Groningen, NL) that refuses to serve their chicken vindaloo to white folk - 'because it's too hot for you white kids'. They could be right, the rest of their menu is rather spicy as well.
You really should add Christianp's YouTube link to the main entry!
@#18 What's the name of the restaurant? I'd like to make a trip!
You could actually order a full portion and a half portion, and the 'eat it and get it for free' rule applied to both. A group of us went there around 10 years ago, and two of us, myself included, orderded the full portion (of course!) and as far as I remember it came as a bowl of 3 large meatballs drenched in a thin, black, evil-looking sauce. I'm assuming the entire thing was filled with liquidised super-hot chilis.
That is the only time I've ever eaten a meal and had a crowd of people from other tables cheering us on and making bets about who, of the two of us, would eat the most. But after a couple of bites we were in the toilets, trying to spit out the lining of our mouths into the sinks. The heat of the chilis causes you to immediately hyper-ventilate, and although I did go back to the table a couple of times (stupidly) for more bites, it just made it worse.
I think the biggest mistake I made was to swallow a large amount of the meat at once, thinking that once it passed my throat at least the pain would be over. Nope. Your whole body starts to heat up, you sweat all over and can't breathe, literally. I eventually ran out of the restaurant, throwing my money on the table with my other friends, who remained to eat their normal-strength curries, and sat on the step outside the restaurant repeatedly spitting, trying to rid myself of what was inside my mouth.
The taxi back to Whitley Bay was long and terrible. In my semi-drunken state I was convinced I was going to die, and we had to ask the driver to pull over so that I could lean against some railings and take long breaths of cold air. I really do know what they mean when told you that some people genuinely ended up in hospital after eating it.
Next morning the 'ring of fire' effect was something you can only imagine. After 'going' I literally, genuinely, could not sit down for most of the day, much to the amusement of my friends. I'm saddened that 'The Lord of Harpole' has died (apparently it was a genuine title, albeit bought not inherited) because he was a lovely man who made his own little part of Newcastle famous. And my arse will never be the same!
#14 Aren't you getting your panties in a bunch over what you perceive to be someone else getting their panties in a bunch? My advice: don't get your panties in a bunch!
That said, sorry to hear of that feller's passing.
#22 Yep, i certainly was. Unbunching my panties as we speak :)
In fairness, it just seemed such a left-field, hear-me-complain-about-something-entirely-irrelevant-but-completely-negative sort of comment that i bunched my panties up and ran in swinging (mixed metaphor anyone?)
So sad. An entire lifetime in which Newcastle United didn't win a single thing in English football. Let's hope most of us live to see that change.
Dizbuster, it didn't strike me as unreasonable.
Otter, you should talk to some Chicago Cubs fans. They've turned not-winning into a sort of bittersweet spiritual discipline suitable for ranting about in bars.