by Steven Doyle
BrainDead Brewing in Deep Ellum is definitely one of the great Meccas of manhood when it comes to dining. The menu is over-the-top podgy with manly dishes such as an award winning chili (I was there to hand them their award at a cook off), their burger stuffed with a bacon and ground brisket patty, clarified butter, onion jam, beer pickles and crispy shallots (not to mention more cheese and more bacon), and a Dr Pepper glazed Cuban sandwich just to name a few hearty items. Damn good stuff, but be prepared to work overtime at the gym, especially when loading up on the incredible in-house brewed beer.
If this wasn’t enough, the cheffy types in the back of the house are offering a duck wing slathered with Scorpion Reaper Adobo. Scorpion Reaper Adobo!
Let’s put some perspective on this pepper. You understand the whole Scoville Scale which measure the heat factor of all peppers. This is where the capsinoids are extracted using science. The heat levels are based on the dilution of the capsinoids. Your average bell pepper figures in at a level zero on the scale, whereas a habanero is closer to a half million (give or take a hundred thousand).
The ghost pepper, which seems to be everyone’s favorite source of blasting heat, weighs in up to two million. This Reaper the guys at Braindead are using is actually even hotter than the ghost pepper, but not by a significant amount. Once you blast past two million, does it really matter? This pepper is probably a few hundred thousand hotter on the Scoville Scale than the ghost pepper.
There are some restaurants that can temper the heat by using other tasty additives, giving you a nice burn without the odd steam jutting out your ears ala Hanna Barbera-style.
The duck wings are part of the new menu that starts Friday, December 18, 2015. God bless us one and all.
