Please welcome the latest HSB Reviewer - Brendan! He’s taking my spot as the word on the street of NY and has already stood up to the Phaal Curry Test of Brick Lane Curry House. More on Brendan below…

I am a 25 year old country boy from the hills outside of Scranton, Pennsylvania, living in Harlem and working in midtown Manhattan. My interest in hot sauce began when I was about 13, with just plain Tabasco. A friend of mine and his dad would go through about half a bottle on their eggs every morning, and I thought that this was a very cool ritual. I quickly became crazy about Tabasco, challenging myself to use more and more on each dish, all the while finding new and exciting ways to use it. A few years later, my family began giving me baskets of other hot sauces as gifts for Christmas and birthdays, purchased from gourmet grocery stores. This is around the time it turned into an obsession, or perhaps an addiction. I began seeking out the hottest, coolest, and most flavorful sauces I could find, but my pursuits were limited, as the food stores I was exposed to only carried mass produced items. Likewise, I really didn’t realize the breadth of the hot sauce industry, let alone the existence of any kind of hot sauce lovers’ community.

After my senior year of high school, some friends and I went to the Delaware shore for “Senior Week” festivities. There, we discovered a store devoted solely to hot sauce. I was in heaven. I did not know it was possible for such a place to exist. After perusing all the products and sampling everything I could, I realized that I had stumbled upon the single best hobby ever, and it has remained a constant source of pleasure for me over many ups and downs in life. Becoming involved in this blog represents my efforts to take my hobby to the next level, and I could not be more excited! I love to write, I love hot sauce…here I am!

More on Brendan here