Two weeks, three stomachs and 97 antacids ago, NOW set out to find the most outrageously hot food in town.
To do so, we travel across the GTA, visiting suburban strip malls so obscure that even Google Maps has trouble locating them.
We discover Hunan and Sichuan and Hakka, killer Korean and old-school Portuguese, the deadliest chicken wings and most ferocious roti.
Of course, first we have to convince nearly every resto that when we specify spicy we want maximum strength and not the watered-down version.
And even then, most are skeptical!
Is it just us or did it suddenly get hot in here?
Bashu Cuisine
4771 Steeles E, at Kennedy, 416-335-0788 4559 Hurontario, at Eglinton, 905-568-9988, bashucuisine.ca
Why does someone who has no problem eating foie gras draw the line at ducks’ tongues?
“It’s like they pulled them out with a pair of pliers,” says the fearless foodie when presented with a plateful of the rubbery appendages mixed with peanuts and chopped green chilies (#108, $9.99).
Far less contentious are the esteemed Sichuan resto’s green-pea noodles (#114, $7.99) laced with tiny Thai bird chilies and toasted sesame seeds. But it’s the former Ba Shu Ren Jia’s king prawn hot pot (#213, $14.99) that has us literally seeing flames – then again, maybe it’s because this huge bubbling wok of shell-on shrimp is heated by a can of Sterno. We’re so entranced by the blistering flavours – raw scallion, aromatic ginkgo nuts, tongue-numbing Sichuan peppercorns and a firestorm of roasted chilies – that we barely notice the altercation at the communal table next to us that causes them to all stomp out at once.
So much for family dining!
Monday to Friday 11 am to 10 pm, Saturday, Sunday and holidays noon to 10 pm. Reservations accepted. Licensed. Access: barrier-free. Rating: NNNN
Spice-O-Metre Rating: 9
Bombay Chowpatty
1386 Gerrard E, at Woodfield, 416-405-8080
The first things you notice at Little India’s only vegetarian snack bar and video rental shop are the fabulously stylish photos of the various nibbles and wraps posted above the takeout counter: artfully splayed bhel puri, Royal Falooda floats in crystal goblets, all squiggled with all manner of riotously coloured sauces.
They don’t really prepare you for the veggie burgers on store-bought buns served on a plastic throwaway plate that you eventually receive.
But what burgers! The Samosa burger’s exactly that, a deep-fried Indo turnover stuffed with minced potato ‘n’ peas on a bun. The house-special Bombay burger (both $3.99) sports a pan-fried potato patty, while the paneer burger ($4.99) is made of mashed cheese and baby corn, all of them dressed with raw Spanish onion, chopped tomato and leafy coriander.
Ramp them up to spicy with the addition of sweet ‘n’ sour tamarind sauce, potent green chutney, a swirl of yogurt, a squirt of ketchup and a lash of cayenne and your lips won’t know what hit them.
Weekdays 1:30 pm to 11 pm, weekends noon to midnight. No reservations. Unlicensed. Access: barrier-free. Rating: NNNN
Spice-O-Metre Rating: 7
Bonga Buldak
710 Yonge, at St Mary, 416-975-0000
Subtitled the House of Hot Taste, this student-friendly Korean izakaya close to Ryerson and U of T makes Guu look like Canoe. They specialize in the kind of cheap bang-bang food that makes perfect sense when you’re hammered but has you wondering, “What the hell did I eat last night?” the next morning.
“You know what that is, right?” asks a concerned server after we order a house specialty known enigmatically as Sauna Squid.
Why yes, we do. It’s a sizzling cast-iron platter heaped with squid that’s first been boiled in a “sauna” before being fried in a red pepper sauce so off the Scoville scale, your throat constricts before these atomic tentacles can pass through it. And then you violently sneeze! Thirty seconds later, you can feel the lining of your stomach begin to dissolve.
But that’s nothing compared to Blazing Chicken or its even more incendiary cousin, Blazing Tearful Chicken. Hardcore pyromaniacs know to go off-menu and ask for Blood Blazing Tearful Chicken (all $14.99 with rice and kimchee). Painful, more like. At first, these brilliantly red cubes of chicken almost taste like nothing. And then the heat kicks in, slowly at first, building and building until you’re reduced to a gibbering idiot drowning in a puddle of sweat and running sinuses.
Don’t say we didn’t warn you!
Monday to Saturday noon to 2 am, Sunday and holidays 5 pm to 2 am. Reservations accepted. Licensed. Access: barrier-free, booth seating, washrooms in basement. Rating: NNN
Spice-O-Metre Rating: 10
Ding Tai Fung
3235 Hwy 7 E, at Fairburn, 905-943-9880
As the perpetually congested parking lot attests, Ding Tai Fung is not only one of celebu-chef Susur Lee’s favourite restaurants, but it would appear the whole of the northeast GTA’s as well.
They come for a surprisingly elegant room, welcoming service and some of the best Shanghai-style dim sum this side of the Pacific (and we’re not referring to the Mall). There’s also the matter of the grub, most famously the house’s signature xiao long bao soup dumplings ($6.99). Bowls of slippery house-made rice noodles are the first to suggest some serious heat, their pungent peanut broth copiously splattered with chili oil.
But leave it to the aptly named Spicy Wonton to steal the show, a half-dozen or so impossibly delicate wrappers stuffed with gingery minced pork in a red-pepper soup so potent, it could probably strip paint. You’ll be glad you also ordered the stir-fried pea shoots in garlic (all $5.99), if only to counter the pyrotechnics.
Monday to Friday 11 am to 11 pm, Saturday, Sunday and holidays 10:30 am to 11 pm. Reservations accepted. Unlicensed. Access: Barrier-free. Rating: NNNNN
Spice-O-Metre Rating: 8
Hakka Garden
25 Overlea, at Thorncliffe Pk, 416-421-8898, hakkagarden.com
When first-timers learn that the cuisine of the peripatetic Hakka of Central Asia is often described as a mix of the cooking of India and China, they picture some collision of butter chicken and barbecued pork fried rice.
Far from it! Think extremely deep-fried sweet ‘n’ sour chicken balls swimming in a sauce that recalls electric red ketchup and you’re close. The Garden’s signature chili chicken (C1, $8.95) can be ordered two ways, either smothered in what the menu innocuously describes as “gravy” or sauce-free, the majority of its heat generated by the batter’s surfeit of red chili flakes. Deliciously addictive chow mein noodles (N1, $8.45) get tossed with crispy halal beef, slivered carrot, scrambled egg and a small nuclear-weapon’s worth of hellaciously hot peppers.
Even poor ol’ broccoli gets the Manchurian heat treatment (V10, $7.50). Choc-a-bloc with chopped garlic, whole peppercorns and more of those crazy-hot chilies, this dizzying stir-fry soon has us crying uncle.
Monday to Thursday 11:30 am to 10:30 pm, Friday and Saturday 11:30 am to 11 pm, Sunday and holidays 1 to 10:30 pm. Reservations accepted. Unlicensed. Access: barrier-free. Rating: NNN
Spice-O-Metre Rating: 7
Konner
3250 Midland, at Finch, 416-760-8818 550 Highway 7 East, at Leslie, 905-887-6698, konner.ca
We had our hearts so set on this temple to Hunan gastronomy’s celebrated winkles (#321, $15.99) that we’re at a bit of a loss when we discover they’re not available today.
Studying the photos in the lengthy menu, we almost go for a pair of steamed fish heads blanketed with a veritable forest of red peppers (#416, $17.99) but notice it’s labelled as having the firepower of a single chili. We opt for the double-barreled spicy boiled live fish (#318, $18.99) instead. Imagine great whacks of some unidentified flounder in a fluorescent red broth lashed with so many roasted red chilies you’ll want to dive in head first, damn the intestinal consequences.
Why, even a supposedly soothing side of fried water spinach (#709, $8.99) comes strewn with the damned things. Packing up the last of the leftovers, we ask the name of that phenomenal fish.
“White,” comes the reply from the kitchen.
Daily 11:30 am to 3 am. Reservations accepted. Licensed. Access: barrier-free. Rating: NNNNN
Spice-O-Metre Rating: 10
Hopper Hut
880 Ellesmere, unit 215, at Kennedy, 416-299-4311, newhopperhut.com
Tucked away behind a nondescript strip mall close to the Kennedy LRT stop, this long-running Sri Lankan eat-in/take-away might be hard to find, but once found won’t be easily forgotten.
Not when the specialty of the house is lampries, an all-in-one rice dish similar to an Indonesian rijsttafel filtered through a Subcontinental spice rack that dates back to Dutch colonial days. Though we have our choice of mutton, chicken, beef or squid versions, we opt for the all-vegetarian ($12) instead. It’s quite the presentation, wrapped as it is in both pink butcher paper and waxy banana leaves, a good 2.5 pounds of combustible curries and nutty samba rice.
At first bite, the flavour profiles are bitter, from the slightly sour eggplant and mustard green subzi to the oddly pickled beets. But then the pungent pickled papaya acharu kicks in, the hot-headed counterpoint to all that relatively mellow dal. And because the toxic toppings have all been steamed together, they make for one insanely palatable package.
You won’t feel like eating again for days!
Sunday to Thursday 10 am to 10:30 pm, Friday and Saturday 10 am to 11 pm. Reservations accepted. Unlicensed. Access: barrier-free. Rating: NNNN
Spice-O-Metre Rating: 7
La Bruschetta
1317 St Clair W, at St Clarens, 416-656-8622, labru.ca
If the shrine dedicated to Sophia Loren just inside the door of this revered Corso Italia trat doesn’t give it away, the classic southern Italian carte will. This is Old-World cooking that’s not embarrassed by its roots.
Maybe that’s why Hollywood A-listers like Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt and Matt Damon as well as Camille Grammer and her ex-husband, Kelsey, have been know to nosh here when in town. Besides the warm welcome, they come for octogenarian owner/chef Benny Piantoni’s impressive antipasto and his authentically pickled peppers, either screaming red Scotch bonnets or home-grown jalapeños.
You’ll find both in chef’s volcanic Penne Vesuvio ($16), an as-old-school-as-they-come combo of al dente pasta and family-recipe sauce made with tomatoes from a backyard around the corner. A crumble of house-made sausage, a splash of olive oil and it’s done, not forgetting a bowl of those explosive peppers on the side.
“We’ve tried to take it off the menu, but our customers won’t let us,” says Benny’s daughter and front-of-house Sylvia Piantoni. “It must be those freakin’ peppers!”
Dinner Tuesday to Saturday 5:30 to 10 pm, lunch Wednesday to Friday noon to 2 pm. Closed Sunday, Monday, some holidays. Reservations accepted. Licensed. Access: barrier-free, washrooms in basement. Rating: NNNN
Spice-O-Metre Rating: 7
Rashnaa
307 Wellesley E, at Parliament, 416-929-2099, rashnaa.com
Now in its 23rd summer, this Sri Lankan treasure comes by its longevity for good reason.
First, there’s the digs, a tiny Victorian cottage in ye olde Cabbagetown. Then there’s the consummate hospitality of owner Arun Poologasingam and the secret backyard patio that nobody knows about.
But we reckon it’s the carte that makes us return time and time again.
Oh, it’s not all fire and brimstone. Those of more fragile appetites can stick to mild-mannered mulligatawny soup ($3.95) and a bashful butter chicken ($10.95). Bona fide heat-seekers should set their sights on Rashnaa’s seismic kothu rotty, a great mess of ripped-up ‘n’ sautéed house-baked paratha flatbread shreds mixed with caramelized onion and sundry toppings like well-done mutton ($8.95) and a virtual flotilla of fire-breathing chilies. Whole ones!
But most of all, we come back for that ol’ Devil Chicken ($10.95), a terrifically torrid combo of “zesty” boneless breast in a sweet tomato gravy laced with fried onion and mined with a boatload of roasted jalapeño peppers. No wonder we’re sweating bullets!
Lunch daily 11:30 am to 3 pm, dinner nightly 5 to 11:30 pm. Delivery 5 to 10 pm. Reservations accepted. Licensed. Access: barrier-free, washrooms upstairs. Rating: NNNN
Spice-O-Metre Rating: 8
Lalibela
869 Bloor W, at Roxton, 416-535-6615 1405 Danforth, at Monarch Park, 416-645-0486, lalibelaethiopianrestaurant.com, @LalibelaToronto
“They’re all hot,” says our rushed-off-her-feet server at this family-friendly Ethiopian eatery when asked which of their dishes delivers the maximum payload.
Well, they’re not, really, not if you count all the meat ‘n’ veggie stews listed on the menu as mild. And then there’s french fries, Greek salads and baklava for that matter. But after a thorough study of the carte, we narrow our quest for fire down to Ye’ Beg Key Wat ($12) “in berbere sauce” and “spicy” Shuro Wat ($10, both with injera).
The former turns out to be uncommonly tender cubes of lamb in a buttery sauce redolent of salt, while the latter translates as a spicy-ish lentil purée with a slight after-burn but nothing that has us gasping for the nearest fire extinguisher. But leave it to a simple tomato salad – albeit one brimming with harsh jalapeño peppers ($6) – to cause the biggest commotion. You know you’re in trouble when the tamest thing on the plate is raw red onion.
Daily 10 am to 2 am. Reservations accepted. Licensed. Access: one step at door, washrooms in basement. Rating: NNN
Spice-O-Metre Rating: 6
Piri-Piri Grill House
1444 Dupont, at Symington, 416-536-5100, piripiri.com
If you’re used to the dry and salty birds from the local churrasqueira down the block, this feted Portuguese beanery’s char-grilled chickens will come as somewhat of a revelation.
The resto’s also more formal than most of the competition, with linen-draped tables and fancy stemware replacing picnic benches and plastic cups. A trellis of wrought-iron chili peppers extends from the front door to the open kitchen.
Those pre-eminent capsicum make their way into the house’s eponymous piri-piri sauce, a collision of thyme, paprika and African chilies that may as well be lighter fluid. This near-flammable elixir adds several dimensions of flavour to classic starters like grilled sardines and shell-on shrimp (both $11.75). And though they’re plating might be somewhat dated, halved chickens sided Lisbon-style with rice or hand-cut fries ($15.75) will always be in style.
Can’t get enough of that sauce? Piri-Piri’s about to go retail!
Daily noon to 11 pm. Reservations accepted. Licensed. Access: barrier-free. Rating: NNN
Spice-O-Metre Rating: 6
Salad King
340 Yonge, at Elm, 416-593-0333, saladking.com, @SaladKingTO
You might have noticed by now that we’re not afraid of fiery food.
But whenever we’ve visited Salad King, the glitzy downtown Thai trat known for its one-to-20 chili chart, we’ve never managed to go higher than three. That translates as “start mopping your brow” for those outside the loop.
To see what we’ve been missing, we order four of the King’s most popular dishes in increasing degrees of heat. With only one chili (“nice”), the spice-challenged Country Tofu ($8.25) is the kind of pleasant stir-fry you might see at a vegan pot luck. At five chilies (“watch out”), his creamy Panang beef curry ($8.75) packs a significant punch.
At least the kitchen issues a caution when they send out a plate of Thai basil noodles with tastily shredded chicken breast ($9.25) at chili-level 10 (“are you sure?”). And if you think the Evil Jungle Prince – baby corn, peppers, onion and Japanese eggplant in red chili sauce ($7.50, all with rice) – is already brutal enough, wait till you crank him up to 20 (“may cause stomach upset”).
“Twenty?! That’s nothing!” laughs manager Alan Liu when we tell him of our dubious achievement. “We’ve done as many as 50 chilies. Your tongue touches it and you’re finished.”
Monday to Thursday 11 am to 10 pm, Friday 11 am to 11 pm, Saturday noon to 11 pm, Sunday and holidays noon to 9 pm. Closed some holidays. Reservations accepted. Licensed. Access: barrier-free. Rating: NNN
Spice-O-Metre Rating: 9
Silk Road
438 Horner, at Beta, 416-259-9440
There are a lot of misconceptions out there about Toronto’s only Uighur restaurant.
Word has it you need a reservation to secure a table for this rather plain 30-seat Central Asian hole-in-the-wall deep in the wilds of Rob Ford’s Etobicoke. They also say you must order everything in advance because the hand-made noodles that give the Road its considerable rep often sell out. Others warn of unusually hostile waiters and a treacherous parking lot. Some of this is true. Show up Saturday night at 7:30 and you won’t be able to leave your car in the correct spot, let alone get a table and order noodles.
Making sure to park directly in front of the joint so as not to enrage the owner of the convenience store next door, we arrive promptly at 3 pm armed with reservations only to find an empty restaurant. An hour later, it’s full. A friendly fellow in a Nirvana T leads us to a plastic-covered table by the window. Shame they’re playing Hotel California by the Eagles on the hi-fi, but you can’t have everything.
We’re soon laying waste to a shareable bowl of tender on-the-bone lamb shank soup in a clear broth rife with chopped parsley, green onion and Thai bird chilies ($7.69). Skewers of remarkably moist cumin-dusted lamb ($1.99 each) appear with little fanfare and no sign of the infamous “kebab nazi.”
And what better way to follow than with a colossal platter of the kitchen’s illustrious handmade lasagna-like laghman noodles layered with a heap of chicken, peppers and leeks in an aggressive cumin gravy spiked with whole cloves of garlic and star anise (Spicy Chicken Stew, $28)? A can of multiculti Canada Dry ($1), perhaps?
Monday to Saturday 3 pm to 1 am. Reservations accepted. Unlicensed. Cash only. Access: short step at door, washrooms on same floor. Rating: NNNN
Spice-O-Metre Rating: 7
Photos by Steven Davey
