El Pelón Taqueria Hosting Habañero Eating Championship

Artwork provided.

If you’re a fan of watching heat-seeking masochists wallowing in self-inflicted pain, then you don’t want to miss out on El Pelón Taqueria’s annual hot chili pepper eating championship on May 7. Throughout the month of April, contestants qualified by eating (and keeping down) 15 roasted habanero chili peppers in 15 minutes. One of the world’s hottest peppers at 350,000 Scoville units, the habañero is said to induce paranoia, redness of the eyes, explosive bowel movements, and eventual euphoria.

At the finals, challengers will gather around a table and eat one chili pepper at a time (within two minutes), until there is only one person left “standing.” El Pelón will begin the competition with milder varieties of peppers and progressively build to more intense examples such as Scotch bonnets and Bhut Jolokia’s (ghost chilies).

El Pelón owner Jim Hoben will be awarding the eventual winner with a trophy and a year’s supply of free burritos. He’ll also be donating 10 percent of all food sales that evening to Lovin’ Spoonfuls, which is dedicated to redistributing healthy, perishable food that would otherwise be discarded.

The guest judge for the event will be Tom O’Keefe (a.k.a BostonTweet) and all the restaurants on Fenway’s Restaurant Row will be serving a menu of spicy specials.

9 p.m., 92 Peterborough St., Fenway; 617-262-9090 or elpelon.com.