We lab-tested 8 MORE pedas Malaysian dishes… Guess which one’s the spiciest?

We’ve always had a penchant for spicy food. We are ‘CILISOS’ after all. But other than that, we also like doing things differently. Last year, we ran Part 1 of our ‘spiciest food in Malaysia’ listicle where we took readers’ suggestions on where we could find the most pedas dishes around. But how did we legitimately quantify them? Through science, duh!

Our methodology: collect a sample of the dish, send it to a reputable science lab in Shah Alam, and get them to determine the SHU (Scoville Heat Unit) using the HPLC method. BTW, the Scoville Scale is used to measure levels of spiciness, like this:

This year, our new friends, GE Malaysia, have generously sponsored us for Part 2! Yes, General Electric, the guys behind light bulbs and machinery and all that techy-wacky stuff.

 

Chup. What does GE have to do with… SPICY FOOD?!

They’ve launched their own blend of hot sauce called the GE 10^32K, developed to mirror GE’s revolutionary materials (such as in jet engines) which can withstand up to 1,700°C! And as for its name? Physicists believe that 1032 Kelvin is the temperature where all things break down.

It’s sadistically crafted with two of the hottest chillies in the world: the Carolina Reaper and the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion.

A few Malaysians managed to try the sauce when GE Malaysia ran a pedas challenge with Mikey’s Pizza in Publika. (P/S: They teamed up with Grab for a special promo for the 2-day event 🙂 )

With a glass of water and milk, contestants raced against each other to finish a serving of Buffalo Chicken cooked with the lethal 10^32K sauce. Jordan Yeoh, fitness coach and once shirtless durian seller, was in the lead at 22 seconds until a weightlifter named Scott whooped his ass at 18 seconds. 

“I can normally eat 2 packs of the Ramyun challenge, but this is on a whole new level. Honestly it’s really the spiciest chili sauce I’ve ever tried in my life. It’s really spicy and the after effect is crazy.” – Jordan Yeoh

We tried the sauce ourselves, but more on that later. For now, let’s take a look and see how it compares to 8 of these spiciest dishes around, as suggested by our readers. We’ve listed them based on their SHU reading we received from the lab:

 

8. Korean Spicy Ramyun @ The Street Cafe – 683.0 SHU

The Street Cafe in SS15, Subang Jaya is known for their Spicy Ramyun Challenge where one must finish a big bowl of noodle and spicy Ramyun soup within 8 minutes. Thankfully, when we sent our staff for this assignment, they prepared a mini version. ^_^

“You can taste the chilli right away upon sipping, but thankfully the spiciness didn’t overpower the taste of the noodle (it’s just a basic noodle with soup and some veggie).

But not long after, the soup burnt right through the tummy. I had to stop at least 3 or 4 times to relax then resume my meal. The manager was kind enough to offer me milk before I even started.” – MK

According to the manager, people take up the challenge every two weeks or so. Needless to say, there’s a token wall of fame (and shame) of people who have attempted it. Not many have made it through though… At a comparatively low rating of 683.0 SHU, we believe the challenge would be easily beatable if customers were given 15 minutes. Then again, it wouldn’t be a challenge now would it 😉

 

7. 911 Pizza @ Mikey’s Pizza New York – SHU 1,188.8

Although Mikey (the angmoh in picture above) owns this pizza parlour, it’s his world-renowned Italian chef Andrew Bellucci who came up with the recipe. The 911 is made with a special hot sauce, and the pizza itself is topped with cayenne pepper, red pepper and cili padi (among others). And as for it’s name, well, think of 911 as the emergency hotline cos it’s spicy enough that you’d wanna call ambulance. Mikey tells us that it’s made specially for the Asian market too.

“It looks scary with layers and layers of cili padi. Spicy, but really quite pleasant almost. Minor sweats, great chilli taste, and Mikey‘s signature chewy/crispy dough texture. After a quick swig of rootbeer, it’s gone.” – Chak

And because our backsides got itchy, we tried the root ingredient of the special 911 sauce: the infamous bhut jolokia ghost pepper. 

This stuff is PURE evil, ugaiz. The spot it touches on our tongues stung like as if we opened a can of whoopass, and no drink would put it out. We needed a jumbo scoop of their frozen custard to save ourselves after. Bonus point: the frozen custard was awesome. 🙂 

 

6. Daging Sotong Meletops @ PNB Park basement foodcourt – 1,884.0 SHU

The place is a little bit difficult to get to. Our readers told us that it’s in a basement food court at the PNB Building, so we had to go through the parking lot, keeping our eyes peeled for discreet signs.

Once we got there, we headed to Stall No. 1 with a signboard that read, ‘Daging Sotong Meletops’. As suggested by our readers, we ordered the nasi daging kunyit (about RM7) and nasi ayam kunyit (about RM5.50). The super spicy sambal isn’t actually part of the meal, but you can request for it to be added to your plate.

“It was so hot that we couldn’t talk for a few minutes. We somehow finished our meal, but Emma was lisping all the way during out drive back to the office. We enjoyed the meal a lot though.

Protip: ask the lady to put the sambal on the side, not on top of the rice.” – Adly

If you wanna check it out, take note that it caters to the office lunch crowd and lines can get pretty long during lunch hour.

 

5. Tom Yam @ Porki Society – SHU 2,066.1

How can we have a spicy test without the Thai staple, tom yam? We were recommended this place by a reader friend who claimed that the tom yam is enough to burn the roof of our tongues.

“Looks harmless. Actually the picture in the menu looks way scarier than the real thing. Tastes pretty spicy initially but not intolerably so.

Quite rough on the throat and nose… Will definitely make you cough. Also as with most tom yams, the effect isn’t so much on the tongue as your whole head will feel very warm… And your throat will feel like it doesnt want this stuff to enter your tummy.” – Chak

Although it was pretty harsh on us, it was definitely not near the ‘masochist’ level as described by some blogs so we’re not surprised that it’s at no. 5. At the same time we tried their spiciest sausage, but unfortunately that was kinda so-so… maybe because we’ve tried the worst already and anything else feels like taufufa. o.O

 

4. Nasi Daging Salai @ Daging Salai Segamat Johor – 3,608.1 SHU

Holey shizballs you guys. This was SO bad. Not Britney Spears lip-syncing bad but aliens-crawling-out-of-stomach kinda bad.

CILISOS.MY buddy, Kington, transported this pack of molten lava all the way from Segamat, Johor. He reports that the cook, Mr Suhaimi, has been running the store for the past 6 years but only became famous for this unforgiving dish in the past 3 years. It’s a small family operation with each dish cooked by the man himself.

His famous nasi goreng daging salai has various levels of pedasness – from no chilli (which he cheekily names ‘Cina’) to level 5. So… what makes Level 5 so spicy? The incredibly spicy chillies, which come from Vietnam and Thailand, go through a special blender which grounds it into a smooth puree. This way, it would coat each grain of rice. It’s also 16 times spicier than Level 1, and is so potent that his family leaves the kitchen while cooking cos the fumes are too caustic.

We tried it on our own and here’s what we thought:

“I was dumb enough to try it on an empty stomach. First taste wasn’t too bad. Quite spicy but tolerable enough for me to take three bites, plus, the meat was delicious… Then it hit me. OH GOOD GRIEF MOTHER OF ROTTEN EGGS SOMEBODY HELP MEH.

I felt a horrible pain in my gut that left me crouching on the floor. No milk or bread would help, and like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, the only way out is through.

Thankfully the pain subsided after lying horizontally, sweat dripping down my face like I was in a sauna. Never again mate, never again. GE we do this cos you’re our friends kay.” – Lydia

No wonder why out of 186 adventurous folks who’ve eaten it, 50% never got past a spoonful, and only 26 people finished it. That’s 26 burnt buttholes, we believe. Go try it if you’re in the area, but please, not on an empty stomach.

 

3. Under The Sky Pan Mee @ Shi Fu Pan Mee – SHU 9,412.7

Last year, we took down the famous Kin Kin Pan Mee (SHU 7,455.16). This year, we decided to take down what our readers call the ‘spiciest pan mee in the world’. While Kin Kin was bad enough to burn our stomachs, we were definitely in for something else as the lab results showed that Under The Sky whooped Kin Kin’s ass at SHU 9.412.7!

Now this little restaurant in Cheras plays a huge psychological warfare game with a warning placed on every table. The paste is made out of chillies from Thailand, India, Malaysia, Mexico, and China AND more dried chilies to top it off. Despite the wantan mee on the signboard, it’s actually served as pan mee. It’s also priced at RM20 per bowl.

“Upon the first bite, there’s a brief moment of okayness before the heat starts attacking your lips. Then next thing you know you’re reaching out for whatever drink you have on hand because it’s a pretty intense burn that just won’t go away.

While it wasn’t close to flip-table levels, I was strongly regretting taking a second bite. I don’t know for sure if this is the world’s spiciest pan mee, but I won’t question the claim.” – Uihua

 

2. Ah Fa Pudu – SHU unavailable!! :'( 

Unfortunately, the lab results found no capsaicin in the sample we brought. Lab guy told us that it could’ve been a bit too watery, hence why we couldn’t get the SHU reading. HOWEVER, we’re putting this as no. 2 based on our own experience…

This little corner stall in Pudu is a humble-looking eatery, but we’re sure they’re doing pretty well – they even have another outlet on a different lorong in the same area. They’re known for their seafood hotpots that range from Level A (not spicy) to Level G (hell). The default comes with prawns, lala, taugeh, fan mushroom and a big-ass deep fried fish head.

Anyway, we ordered Level G of course, despite the waitress mocking us a little bit. When it came, we could immediately smell the familiar, painful smell of chillies. The soup was red, the chillies were all over, and other diners (even the staff) couldn’t stop staring at us. In fact, the table beside ours even requested if they could try some of our soup.

“It’s deceptively spicy. I took one mouthful, and it seemed fine initially. Quite tasty. And then the burn kicked in, and oh my sweet cotton candy did it kick in.

Numbness of the tongue, running nose, tears in my eyes. It felt like somebody mixed warfare-grade chemicals into the hotpot of seafood. Felt like my tongue couldn’t move properly after that, and talking to the boss about what he put in his soup was slightly difficult, and I felt like my speech was slurred.” – Victor

The boss told us that he used 4 different types of chillies from 4 countries: Brazil, Thailand, India and China. Overall, it’s actually very tasty (if you can dig deep into your soul and look past the spiciness), but priced at RM99, you might wanna get a few friends to go with you. Then again, the serving *is* big enough for 4 anyway.

Protip: Go no further than Level D to enjoy the seafood to its fullest. We went through the spiciness to finish the deep fried fish head, cos it was one of THE BEST we’ve had in our lives.

 

1. Taman Connaught Sausage 17,849.7

Here’s the winner of this round’s spicy food test! Located somewhere in Taman Connaught’s massive Wednesday night pasar malam, this heat-on-a-stick is prepped by a very kind lady named Aunty Hew. She’s been doing this for 10 years at least, and switches between pasar malams: Sri Kembangan (Monday), Sri Petaling (Tuesday), Connaught (Wednesday), Taman Midah Cheras (Saturday).

“Ok, so to the reader that led us to Taman Connaught, tsk bro… tsk. There are about 9 Taiwanese sausages there! But unlike Mark Wahlberg, they don’t really shout about their sausages. It was really hard to find one that actually said SUPER SPICY, which eventually we did…

The sausage itself isn’t quite like the Ming Tien one we tried last year. Its spiciness is only in the powder, and upon request of EXTRA SPICY, she basically layers more cili powder on it.

The one we got was caked in powder, but a lot of it fell off after the 2nd bite. Verdict? It kicks, and it lingers too and of course it made me sweat. But versus Ming Tien’s porky sword of evil? Not even close.” – Chak

Ok to be honest, we were a bit surprised that the this entry has the highest SHU among the rest. It was a little underwhelming when we tried it, but maybe that’s because we’ve been to hell and back. For context, the Ming Tien spicy sausage came in at over 44,400 SHU. We really almost died trying that.

 

So… what about GE’s 10^32K sauce? 13,176.5 SHU, mothatruckazzz! 

We had a chance to taste the sauce in the CILISOS.MY office, and our editor, Chak, had the brilliant idea of challenging Taavi, PR person for GE, to an East vs West: GE 10^32K showdown. The challenge? Take a big tablespoonful of the sauce, and whoever who reaches for the soymilk first loses. Chekkidout:

Although Taavi won, it was only a matter of time before the two of them started sweating buckets and losing all sensation on their tongues. Made with the Carolina Reaper and the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion (both ranked higher than 1 million SHU individually), there’s no wonder why Chak had cramps that lasted till the evening. He graphically told us about his morning poop but we’ll spare you the details. (If interested email [email protected])

Anyways, it was fun doing a second round of this spicy test. Like we said, at CILISOS.MY we’re always trying to do things differently… much like GE, we guess. 😀 Before this, they used science to create the best BBQ meat. They’ve also put a snowball in molten lava. And today, of all things, they used a hot sauce to show the world what their jet engines are made of!

We’re definitely looking forward to what else these geniuses are gonna do in the future… who knows, maybe a chilli concoction that can actually bring down a fever? 😀