Staying Warm in Fargo, ND

It’s Fargo, ND in the middle of January and there’s a windchill of -37° F outside. That doesn’t leave a lot of options for things to do. Fargo has been ranked one of the five coldest cities in the U.S. by Farmer’s Almanac, and the 2nd drunkest city in the U.S. by The Daily Beast. So, you could go out and get hammered drunk so it doesn’t bother you so bad – when in Rome so to speak. Or else, you can do what I did.

Quaker Steak & Lube has a food challenge that will help bring your core temperature up a couple notches. Their “Triple Atomic Wings” challenge consists of eating 5 of their wings in under 5 minutes. I did 6 in 3:54. If you don’t think that sounds too bad, consider this. They are 200 times hotter than the average jalapeno. They actually only let you eat these spicy wings after signing a waiver! This is also the same challenge that was done by Adam Richman of the Travel Channel's Man vs. Food!


The sauce they use for these infernal wings are scored at 500,000 Scoville Heat Units (SHU), compared to the average jalapeno that comes in at 2,500 SHU. They achieve this by utilizing the scorching hot ghost pepper, which held the rank as hottest pepper in the world, until recently when it was outclassed by the newly developed Trinidad Scorpion Butch T., and then again by the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion pepper.

Below is a video of my experience. I think you can actually see my body temp rise as I eat them!