[crowd chanting] Man versus Food!
I'm at 86 Bar outside of Hartford, Connecticut
for the Taco Roulette challenge.
There's a point where spicy is too much.
- It's, like, burning your face off. - Yeah.
And I think that's what you're about to experience.
[Webb] Two of these eight tacos are doused with scorpion ghost pepper sauce.
But I don't know which.
It's gonna be a fiery surprise for you.
"A fiery surprise." That's what my mom used to call me when I was little.
[Webb] If I can finish all eight in 30 minutes,
my face will grace the Wall of Fame.
- [crowd cheering] - [mouth stuffed] This is hot!
[crowd shouting]
-[shouting] Let's go, Casey! Eat those tacos! -[crowd] Woo!
This game of chance... just met its match.
[Webb] For years, Food's army has grown unchecked.
Oh, my God.
Bigger.
Wow.
Spicier.
Woo!
Bolder.
What is that?
But a hero rises.
That's tremendous.
Ready to taste the nation's most epic eats.
Ah...
- [crowd cheering] - I'm Casey Webb.
Yes!
Holding the banner of Man.
And armed with years of experience in the restaurant industry.
[crowd chanting] Casey!
- I go into battle. - [crowd cheering]
- Bring out the steak! - [crowd cheering]
Food. Your days are numbered.
It's gonna be a wild ride!
- [crowd cheering] - The mighty Casey has a taste for victory.
Woo!
This is
[reading]
- [crowd cheering] - [bell dings]
My culinary crusade takes me to Hartford, Connecticut
for a jam-tastic burger, Puerto Rican fries
and a challenge that will have me
gambling with my taste buds.
Hartford... Let's roll.
Hartford was founded along the Connecticut river nearly 500 years ago.
As a home to American icons like Mark Twain and Katharine Hepburn,
it has a long history of great traditional American cuisine.
But, as times have changed, this city has become
more diverse and so has the food.
When you want the most mouthwatering,
over the top burgers that Hartford has to offer,
you come to Goldburgers.
For specialties that can only be described as "Out of this world."
According to the restaurant's far out tale,
Goldburgers was founded in 2009,
by intergalactic explorer destined to combine
the galaxy's craziest flavors for one-of-a-kind burgers.
Whether that's true or not, nobody does it quite like Goldburgers.
Nowhere has anywhere nearly as creative a menu going.
[Webb] Fans keep coming back again and again,
because every few days Goldburgers features a new outrageous burger.
The combinations of flavors you can't get anywhere else.
Potato chips, maple syrup and hot sauce.
Marshmallow fluff burger.
Jam.
Chicken and waffles burger.
Words can't even describe it.
[Webb] Their famous MacPatty burger
includes a fried mac and cheese patty.
A burger with nacho cheese, jalapenos and mac sauce.
- It's delicious. - I-- Say that again?
- Delicious. - [chuckles]
The MacPatty.
It's substantial, so it's kinda working its way off the back
The burger in the front, patty in the back.
- Patty in the back. - Can you say that? [laughs]
But, their most out-of-this-world creation
is the Jamn! You Jelly? Burger.
A beef burger with bacon jam, chocolate hazelnut spread,
cheddar, homemade grape jelly and potato chips.
Sounds crazy, yes, but it tastes amazing.
I wanna take a bite of that.
[laughs]
Now's my chance to meet the chef,
- currently piloting spaceship Goldburger. - [sizzling]
- [Webb] Tony! - How's it goin'?
- How you doin', man? - Pretty good.
So what burger are we making today?
- Today, we're gonna be making the Jamn! You Jelly? burger. - [laughs]
We're making bacon jam, so first ingredient...
[both] Bacon. [laugh]
We caramelize onions and cook the bacon down
until it's nice and crispy.
-Hear that? Can you hear the bacon? -Nice crispy bacon.
Yeah, yeah.
We combine them together and add Worcestershire sauce,
house made hot sauce, soy sauce and brown sugar.
That's probably gonna have to cook down
for another 30 minutes, probably so, at a nice simmer.
[Webb] And we could jump to our...
- Jelly. - Jelly! Jamn! You jelly.
For the jelly, we're using local concord grapes,
which have a slip skin, making them great grapes for jam making.
Oh, and it's warm at the same time.
- You could charge people to do this. - Yeah.
[both chuckle]
Next up is straining and draining the grapes
to get that delicious juice for our jelly.
[Pignone] There it is.
Smells grape. Smells grape.
[laughs]
And finally, we heat the grape juice.
Then add the sugar and pectin
before pouring it into a jar where it can set up.
I'll just skim off that, uh, frothy stuff on the top and then...
- We make the burger next. - Yeah.
[Webb] We cook the burger on the flat top
and top it with Cabot cheddar cheese and bacon jam.
[Pignone] Then we're gonna steam it,
and melt the cheese real nice.
[Webb] It's finally time to make the Jamn! You Jelly? burger.
So I can jam it in my mouth.
Potato buns are my favorite.
It's a nice, long, kinda like, sweeter bread.
Nice scoop of chocolate hazelnut spread.
[Webb] Whoa, you're not kidding.
- That is a nice scoop. - [Pignone] Oh, yeah.
[Webb] We got, uh, jelly on top.
And we got a burger in the middle.
We don't mess around over here, with the chips.
[Webb] Whoa.
Whoo-hoo! This is a squisher.
[Pignone] Yep, you gotta squeeze it.
[Webb chuckles] I have no idea what's going on in my mouth right now.
Immediately, I get the sweet of the jelly.
The burger is perfectly cooked.
The cheese really holds in all that bacon jam flavor.
It's crispy, it's fatty.
And then there's, like, this hint of chocolate at the end.
This is a hell of a burger.
- Well done. Or medium rare. - [both chuckle]
This burger is jamming but I still have tacos
that are making me feel like jelly.
- [evil laugh] - Julio, what the hell is in here?
That's pretty much a poison.
- My God. - [evil laugh]
Roulette challenge. Hit me with your best shot.
[both blowing]
[bell dings]
I'm in Hartford, Connecticut, mustering the courage
to take on the selectively spicy four pound
Taco Roulette challenge.
But, first it's time for a Hartford twist
on Puerto Rican comfort food.
With a third of the city's population claiming Puerto Rican heritage,
it's no surprise that Hartford is filled with great Puerto Rican joints.
But if you want a place that's a step above the rest,
you gotta go to MofonGo.
MofonGo serves up a variety of delicious, authentic Puerto Rican classics,
like, Chuletas, seasoned pork chops,
with MofonGo's signature mayo ketchup sauce.
The food, the presentation.
It's like your-- It's like it's gourmet.
And their Jibarito Burgers.
Squeezes large Angus beef patties and avocado
- between a crispy, homemade plantain bun. - [sizzling]
The minute I got the plantain bun in my life...
Whole other level.
I mean, once you go plantain bun,
- you can really go back, right? I mean-- - That's what they say.
- [sizzling] - [Webb] The dishes they're famous for, though,
are their takes on the Puerto Rican staple, mofongo.
They mash fried green plantains,
mixed with olive oil, garlic and butter.
Then add a variety of toppings.
There's a line in and out of this store,
and that's for a good reason.
The food's spectacular.
[Webb] The dish I have to try takes their mofongo to a whole other level.
The Pernil Trifongo adds sweet plantains
and yellow rice to the mofongo tower
and features their secretly spiced slow roasted pork.
I mean it's kinda bananas.
- It is bananas. - Plantains.
- [chuckles] It is bananas. - Plantains in fact.
[Webb] But it-- Does it marry well?
- Oh, it's setup for a long-term relationship. - [laughs]
Time to meet the architect of these tasty towers.
- Hey, Vin. How are you, man? - How you doin'?
I'm doing great. Vin, tell me about MofonGo.
MofonGo, it was established about five years ago.
It was a focus on great Puerto Rican-American cuisine with a twist.
- Yes. - Classic mofongo has chicharrons.
- It does. - Garlic.
- Yep. - Plantains.
- Yeah, and oil. - And oil and all smashed together.
That's it. That's mofongo.
And then, with our dish today, what are we doing?
- So it's-- - So, we're doing the trifongo.
The trifongo has another layer
and that is with sweet plantains.
[Webb] We head to the back kitchen to prep the pernil,
which is the Spanish term for pork shoulder.
- So we have to prep our shoulder... - Yeah.
- Before we actually roast it. - Yeah, it's actually a braising meat.
So really, you just gotta season it.
You gotta marinade it.
And then you gotta slow cook that sucker
until it's super tender.
[Webb] We generously season both sides of the pork
with garlic and MofonGo's special double style
proprietary seasoning blend.
-Oh, my God. Look at that color. -That looks great.
- It's like glow in the dark. - That's great.
[Webb] After eight hours in the oven,
the pork is fall off the bone tender.
What do you use the skin for?
So we actually chop it up. We call it chicharrons.
- Yeah, you do. - We chop it up and we sprinkle it on your plate.
- That's amazing. - I can't go wrong with that.
[Webb] All right. So we have our meat.
Now we're gonna go build our trifongo.
Let's go do it.
[sizzling]
We add fried green plantains to the pilon,
and top them with MofonGo's delicious homemade mojito,
- which is an oil-based sauce with culantro. - [bell dings]
And cilantro, onions, garlic and some super-secret spices.
But you can't tell me what it is.
- Yeah, 'cause I don't want you opening a MofonGo. - [laughs]
- I'll open one. - [both laugh]
[Webb] We then add generous amounts of butter,
garlic oil and a little salt
before we get to mashing mofongo.
- [Webb] This takes a lot. - It does.
- [Webb] It's a lot of shoulder work. - Yeah, yeah.
- Is there an electric version of this? - [laughs]
[Webb] We mashed the green plantains
until we reached a mash potato-like consistency.
Smooth. Slightly chunky. Kinda like me.
We layer the sweetened green plantains with yellow rice
and we're ready to play tip the trifongo.
Voila. [chuckles]
- I did hear a drum roll. - [laughs]
[Webb] We add our slow roasted pork,
mayo, ketchup sauce, chimichurri sauce and some fresh salsa.
Trifongo. [chuckles] Now I'm gonna go eat it.
- Enjoy. - [chuckles]
- To you buddy. Thanks Vin. - No, thank you.
[Webb] With the three layers, it gives you so much flavor in each one of them.
From the sweet plantains to the green plantains to our rice and peas.
The richness in the roast of the pork.
It just so marries so well with the rice and the starchiness.
This reminds me of comfort food.
- And I'm gonna be comfortable eating all of it. - [both laugh]
This mofongo's got me going but I still have tacos
trying to stop me in my tracks.
So 80% fail rate.
- Fail rate. That's not good. - It's not.
Hey Roulette challenge.
Do you feel lucky, punk?
[bell dings]
I'm outside Hartford at 86 Bar
for the Taco Roulette challenge.
If I can take down four pounds of sporadically spiced tacos,
I get bragging rights and my photo on the Wall of Fame.
This is gonna be one tasty game
of Russian roulette.
If you're in Hartford looking for a fun atmosphere
with creative Peruvian spiced pub fare,
you should try to get 86th
Probably the most colorful, flavorful place in this area.
[Webb] Fan favorites include the stack quesadilla with chicken and bacon.
And their three cheese mac with a tantalizing topping.
Pulled pork. Other things added to it.
It's the whole package that brings it together, honestly.
Sure.
Sounds like I'm in for eight delicious tacos.
But two of them will pack a serious punch.
[Webb] What do you think is harder?
The eight tacos or the two spicy ones?
I think it's the two spicy ones.
Because you don't really know when they're coming.
That's it, man. Sneak attack.
Like a little... Peruvian ninjas jumping out.
And what if the first two are the hottest ones?
- See... - See, that's a nightmare.
I head to the kitchen to see who came up
with such a devious delicacy.
- Hey, Julio. - Casey, what's going on?
- How are you? - How you doin', man?
- Good to see you. - Good to see you.
And so, roulette taco challenge.
So what am I getting myself into?
We came up with idea of doing something, uh,
good, delicious, that looks easy to eat.
But, we have, uh, hidden, little secret
- in couple of 'em, which is... - What's the secret?
Really hot peppers.
The whole point of the challenge
is that you don't know which,
out of the eight, has the spiciness.
- The roulette part of this. - That's the roulette part.
[Webb] We start by making the hellacious hot sauce,
which features two of the hottest peppers in the world.
[Cancho] Scorpion peppers and we also have ghost chili.
[Webb] Ghost and scorpion peppers
register at one and one point five million
Scoville units respectively.
So these are gonna be two nuclear ninja tacos.
- So you're not messing around. - My goal is to 86 people.
[Webb] The ghost and scorpion peppers
should 86 just about everybody.
But even the Peruvian rocoto pepper packs a punch.
[Cancho] So we're gonna add a little bit of this paste.
- Of this Peruvian-- - [Webb] How hot is that?
Here. Yeah, try it.
- I'll try it. - It has a nice kick but it goes away.
It's just mostly flavor.
Whoa.
"Mostly flavor?" Do you wanna try it?
-[whispering] It's hot. -And this one, right here. The Aji Amarillo.
It's really great.
Love it, but that-- Whoa.
- We got the little skull and the cap's off the top. - This is the secret...
- part of the ingredient but it's no secret anymore. - It's not secret anymore. No.
Why is it in a skull?
[clicks tongue] Um, you know, like poison.
They have, uh, you know, the little bottle with the skull in it.
That's pretty much a poison.
It's, um, dehydrated powder scorpion peppers.
[Webb] So more scorpion.
So, we got fresh scorpion. Then we have dried scorpion.
- [Cancho] Yeah. - Which is concentrated.
It is concentrated.
So don't worry, we'll just add a little bit to it.
All right. How much you gonna go?
- And of course, I've gotta be really careful. - That's good.
- There you go. Is that good? - [whispering] Aah.
[Webb] Whoa. You can smell it. Whoa.
Do you want some?
Do ya?
Then this perilous paste goes on two of the thick flour tortillas.
Do-do-do-do-do. Done.
[Canco] That's it? No, come on. We gotta make it--
- Uh. - We gotta make it interesting.
[Webb] The scorching surprise is hidden amidst
seasoned beef, lettuce, queso and tomatoes.
Oh, well let's just... make it four pounds.
[scoffs] You forget about the weight.
'Cause there's not one but there's seven more.
These are still the two hottest.
[Cancho] You do me a big favor? Will you, uh...
Just hand me that over there, really quick for me, please.
- Sure. - That will be lovely.
- [Webb] What? Oh, what? This? - Yeah, that will work.
- [Webb] This stuff? - Yeah.
[Webb] Oh, which-- Did you? Oh, I see.
- You just fooled me. - I just did.
- You just made me go get something and then... - So good luck.
[crowd cheering, clapping]
[Cancho] You got 30 minutes to eat the whole thing.
Are you gonna be 86?
Or are you gonna be in the Hall of Fame?
Good luck.
[Webb] Best case scenario is that I don't reach
the hot tacos until the very end.
Then I could eat them in a hurry and cool off after I'm done.
[crowd shouting] Three, two one.
[man] Woo!
[crowd chanting] Go.
The first taco is delicious.
And only a little spicy.
The sauteed beef and Peruvian peppers are perfectly pairing.
And I devour it on the way to taco number two.
[bell dings]
[crowd] Woo!
[crowd chanting] Casey!
Taco two is a scorching surprise.
An aromatic ambush.
A blazing booby trap.
This is hot!
Ahh!
Whoa.
This is about as bad a start as I could have.
Whoa.
[bell dings]
[Webb] I'm in Hartford, Connecticut
taking on 86 Bar's Taco Roulette challenge.
Eight tacos totaling four pounds,
contain two secret scorchers
with ghost and scorpion peppers.
[crowd chanting] Casey!
- I quickly 86 one regular taco. - [bell dings]
But the first flaming fire trap has just hit me.
Ahh!
[crowd cheering]
My mouth is on fire and I need to take a break.
But I can't stop down for long.
There are still three pounds of tacos remaining.
With my face to the flame, there's nothing I can do but power through
and I pray I don't meet this taco's evil twin anytime soon.
Wooh!
The burning isn't subsiding.
But taco three is as delicious and harmless as can be.
Ahh!
Ahh.
Whoa.
Oh, no.
Taco four is the second bullet.
It's like pouring gasoline on a fire.
I think it will slow him down.
I was hoping both fiery fiends would come much later in the challenge.
But the Fire Gods laughed at my hopes.
This is seriously slowing me down.
With each bite, I'm pouring more lava in my mouth.
All right. Four tacos down.
-Four to go. How we doing, Casey? -Ahh!
[bell dings]
Both tricky tacos are eaten but they're not gone.
They're making every bite after them, a challenge.
It's tough for me to go on.
Let me see if the people of Hartford are in the mood for excuses.
-[shouting] Let's go, Casey! Eat those tacos! -[crowd] Woo!
[crowd chanting] Eat those tacos!
Apparently not.
- Spin that wheel, Casey! - [crowd shouting] Woo!
Three tacos left, but I've spent
so much time recovering
from the two nuclear ninjas, that it's a race against the clock.
Come on, Casey! 86 those tacos!
[crowd chanting] 86!
- Two tacos left. - [bell dings]
Is there a light at the end of the tunnel?
Or am I hallucinating?
[crowd chanting] Casey!
He's gonna be on the wall. He's gonna win this challenge.
[crowd chanting] Last taco!
[crowd chanting] One more bite!
[crowd] Woo!
[bell dings]
You beat the challenge. Congratulations.
Your picture is gonna go on our website.
- [Webb shouting] Yeah! - Thank you so much.
[crowd] Woo!
In the battle of Man versus Food.
Man won!
Woo!
I love you, 86.
I love you, Hartford. Yeah!