How The World’s Hottest Taco Almost Killed This Food Blogger [WATCH]

Rudy Chaney, after just a few ‘Death Tacos’

Imagine: a dish so incredibly hot, you’d need to sign a waiver beforehand, have a photo taken post-consumption (to prove you finished it), and a few good friends around to buy you ice cream and Tums just to make it through the night. Welcome to GenkiYaki‘s Death Taco Challenge.

GenkiYaki is a Japanese/Korean fusion establishment in Lakewood, California that specializes in causing pain via their insanely spicy creations. To give you little insight: their tacos have names like “Ninja,” “Zombie,” and “Death”—if that doesn’t scare you, maybe the fact that Foodbeast’s very own Rudy Chaney couldn’t get past four Death Tacos will.

Everyone knows how much Rudy adores spicy foods. A few years ago, he laughed in the face of danger by treating two of Slater’s 50/50’s “50 Alarm” burgers (aka one of the spiciest sandwiches known to mankind) like they were popsicles on a hot summer day. Despite the warnings, he agreed to laugh in the face of Death Taco by not only participating in the “Death Taco Challenge,” but by attempting to beat the Challenge’s current record of 10 Death Tacos in order to bring honor to the Foodbeast name.

Mind you, the Death Taco is approximately 100-350K on the Scoville scale (for comparison, jalapeños are at 8,000)—it contains a practically lethal sauce made with cayenne and habanero peppers. That being said, Rudy deserves the utmost respect and praise despite prematurely tapping out.

The competition was fiercely intense as his mighty forehead glistened and tastebuds burned with the power of a thousand suns, not to mention his stomach probably felt like it was flip-flopping in the flames of Hell. After four tacos, he was positive that there was absolutely no way he’d be able to polish off six more and walk away unscathed. So, at the risk of permanently damaging his digestive tract, Rudy had no choice but to respectfully bow out of the challenge. He instead opted to recover from the traumatic experience by heading to Baskin Robbins, a wise choice indeed:

Even though Rudy did not set a new Death Taco record this time, we can assure you that Foodbeast WILL be back. Someday, we’ll return to GenkiYaki to avenge the fallen, and we WILL conquer the Death Taco Challenge! But until then, we’ll begin training our stomachs by downing a few 50 Alarms.