Phall ( bn, ফাল, , jump), also spelt fall, faal, phaal, phal or fal, is a

curry A curry is a dish with a sauce seasoned with spices, mainly associated with South Asian cuisine. In southern India, leaves from the curry tree may be included. There are many varieties of curry. The choice of spices for each dish in tradit ...

which originated in the

Bangladeshi Bangladeshis ( bn, বাংলাদেশী ) are the citizens of Bangladesh, a South Asian country centered on the transnational historical region of Bengal along the eponymous bay. Bangladeshi citizenship was formed in 1971, when the ...

-owned curry-houses of

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

, England and has also spread to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. It is not to be confused with the char-grilled, gravyless, finger food phall from

Bangalore Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...

. It is one of the hottest forms of curry regularly available, even hotter than the

vindaloo Vindaloo or vindalho is an Indian curry dish, which is originally from Goa, based on the Portuguese dish carne de vinha d'alhos. It is known globally in its British Indian form as a staple of curry house and Indian restaurant menus, and is often r ...

, using many ground standard

chilli pepper Chili peppers (also chile, chile pepper, chilli pepper, or chilli), from Nahuatl '' chīlli'' (), are varieties of the berry-fruit of plants from the genus ''Capsicum'', which are members of the nightshade family Solanaceae, cultivated for t ...

s, or a hotter type of chilli such as

scotch bonnet Scotch bonnet (also known as Bonney peppers, or Caribbean red peppers) is a variety of chili pepper named for its supposed resemblance to a Scottish tam o' shanter bonnet. It is ubiquitous in West Africa as well as the Caribbean. Like the clos ...

habanero The habanero (; ) is a hot variety of chili. Unripe habaneros are green, and they color as they mature. The most common color variants are orange and red, but the fruit may also be white, brown, yellow, green, or purple. Typically, a ripe hab ...

, or

Carolina Reaper The Carolina Reaper is a cultivar of the ''Capsicum chinense'' plant. Developed by American breeder Ed Currie, the pepper is red and gnarled, with a bumpy texture and small pointed tail. In 2017, ''Guinness World Records'' declared it the hotte ...

. Typically, the dish is a tomato-based thick curry and includes

ginger Ginger (''Zingiber officinale'') is a flowering plant whose rhizome, ginger root or ginger, is widely used as a spice A spice is a seed, fruit, root, bark, or other plant substance primarily used for flavoring or coloring food. Spices ...

and optionally

fennel seeds Fennel (''Foeniculum vulgare'') is a flowering plant species in the carrot family. It is a hardy, perennial herb with yellow flowers and feathery leaves. It is indigenous to the shores of the Mediterranean but has become widely naturalize ...

. Phall has achieved notoriety as the spiciest generally available dish from Indian restaurants. It is, however, quite rare to find in comparison to vindaloo (which is usually the staple hottest curry of most Indian restaurants in the UK). In 2008 in the UK, a charity competition in

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

was based on competitors eating increasingly hot phalls. A Season 1 episode of ''

Man v. Food ''Man v. Food'' is an American food reality television series. It premiered on December 3, 2008 on the Travel Channel. The program was originally hosted by actor and food enthusiast Adam Richman. In each episode, Richman explores the "big food" o ...

'' in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

featured host

Adam Richman Adam Montgomery Richman is an American actor and television host. He has hosted various dining and eating-challenge programs on the Travel Channel and History Channel. Early life and education Richman, an only child, was born into a Jewish fa ...

accepting a challenge involving eating a full serving of phall at Brick Lane Curry House in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

References

{{Bangladeshi dishes English cuisine Indian cuisine in the United Kingdom Bangladeshi cuisine in the United Kingdom Sylheti cuisine