Mr Foodie Being Glasgow-based we never made it to the Vintage in Leith but then the Vintage came to Drygate anyway! In its place is now Hardeep Singh Kohli’s craft beer and curry bar V Deep which we visited to find out about, and be cajoled into taking part in their first ever “Deep Heat Chilli Challenge”!
The unassuming entrance to V Deep on Leith’s Henderson Street.
And here are some of the brave contestants along with a couple of cheerleaders for moral support! STV’s Fountainbridge show were also there reporting live. The concept was simple: 4 rounds with 4 hot wings each and a cup of cooling lassi between rounds – but drinking this during the round led to instant disqualification, and of course whoever was last to finish their wings dropped out.
Round 1 – regular wings, Round 2 something hotter, Round 3 something hotter still, Round 4 described to me as a sauce that burns if you dip your finger in it.
Look at them go! Thanks to a lot of luck I managed to progress through the rounds despite being a slow eater! It wasn’t so much the chilli heat that slowed me down but rather the physical just-cooked heat! Weirdly round 3 didn’t seem as hot as round 2, perhaps I’d built up a tolerance or perhaps it was because most of the chilli seemed to slide off those wings! Top chilli eating tip 😉
I made it through to the final round were we were kindly given an extra wing, so 5 to devour instead of 4! And believe me they did burn! Top tip from the cheerleader behind me was “don’t let it touch your tongue!”
And here’s a video of the action (courtesy of Christina O’Neill at Herald Scotland)
But in the end it was a clear 5-2 win for the aptly named Ally Burns who took home a chilli plant, ribbon-wrapped toilet roll and £100 to spend on more hot wings, or possibly something less spicy at V Deep.
You win some you lose some but I came second and received a bucket full of Drygate beer with a ribboned toilet roll too which certainly helped ease the after-effects of the chilli onslaught! At the bottom of the bucket was also a Harvey Nicks bag which was full of…air. Sadly what I thought was a surprise actually just amounted to packaging! D’oh, and luckily my trip to the bathroom the following day wasn’t as traumatic as I feared it would be!
The V Deep chilli challenge will take place quarterly so look out for another contest around October time.
Find out more about events, food and beer on offer at V Deep on their website here.
