My photo is on the wall of a Chicago Thai restaurant for their spicy food challenge. They had a scale of: mild, medium, hot. From there they had a second scale

My photo is on the wall of a Chicago Thai restaurant for their spicy food challenge. They had a scale of: mild, medium, hot. From there they had a second scale of: Thai hot 1x-10x. If you cleared your plate at Thai hot 7x or higher you got your meal comped and your photo on the wall. My friend and I did it one day. He ordered a curry and had no problem. I ordered pad thai that was the biggest plate of noodles I'd ever seen and failed because my stomach wasn't large enough vs it being from the heat. Went back and did the curry no problem. The thing with very spicy foods is at a certain point your tongue checks out and flavors just get muted. Personally I love the Sichuan approach since the peppercorns numb your tongue to the heat a little which for me lets me more fully experience the flavors of the chiles.