Behold, the extreme Scorpion Burger challenge
UNCONTROLLABLE sweats, shaking, tears, burning, and grunts of pain. Sounds like fun, right? That’s what Australia’s most extreme burger will do to you.
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UNCONTROLLABLE sweats, shaking, tears, burning, and grunts of pain.
These are some of the body’s reactions to what may be Australia’s most extreme food challenge.
Cody’s Cafe owner and head chef Chris Cody started the firey Scorpion Burger Challenge, which requires people to sign a waiver, about four years ago.
To succeed you must eat the entire 600g Scorpion Burger doused in four of the hottest chillies in the world — Trinidad scorpion chilli sauce, Devils Delirium chilli sauce, Dragons Blood chilli sauce and Turbo supercharge Habanero paste — and all stray ingredients in under 25 minutes.
The catch is, you can’t have any sides or drinks to take away the pain until five minutes after completing the meal.
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More than 400 people have tried and failed at the Manor Lakes cafe in Victoria, while only 70 have tasted success.
A customer named Chris is the current Scorpion Burger Challenge record holder, completing it in an incredible 2.28 minutes.
Mr Cody, who has completed the challenge twice, said it was hard to describe how hot the burger was.
“I underestimated how hot chillies could be,” he said.
“Your palette feels like it’s on fire. Your eyes burn. You get the tingles and the shakes.”
But he said adrenaline took over and you kept wanting more.
It’s not all glory for those brave enough to try the feat.
Mr Cody said the challenge had landed three or four people — including Gold FM radio host Lehmo — in hospital due to incredible stomach pain, and about 30 per cent of challengers would phone nurse on call.
“It’s not just eating a burger. It’s 24 hours of after effects.”
Dr Joe Garra, a doctor at Tarneit Road Health Clinic, said there were no grave concerns for people who wanted to take on the firey burger.
“There won’t be any long term damage,” Dr Garra said.
“You’re only going to get an upset tummy and some burning. It’s just a temporary thing.”
Mr Cody said he started the challenge, and more recently a 1kg Parma Challenge, as a way of bringing in business and getting people talking about the cafe.
“People challenge their friends. It’s an ego battle.”
If you can complete the challenge, you get the $25 burger for free.
Cody’s Cafe is at 16/455 Ballan Rd, Wyndham Vale, Victoria.