The peri-peri burger at Out of Africa, the new South African restaurant on Southwest Freeway in Sugar Land, is a hamburger topped with the legendary hot sauce made with African bird peppers. And since I love peri-peri chicken, peri-peri prawns and peri-peri everything else, I figured this one was a natural.

Out of Africa cooks their hand-formed half pound hamburgers on a charcoal grill and serves them with your choice of several South African sauces. There's a trainsmash burger (sautéed onion and tomato sauce), a monkey gland burger (sautéed onion and barbecue sauce), and a pepper-crusted burger covered with cracked black pepper. There's also a Hawaiian burger with grilled pineapple and a mushroom burger. All of these come with lettuce, tomato and fries.

I took one bite of this peri-peri burger and was immediately beset with the chile pepper hiccups. They didn't subside until I drank a huge glass of milk. I think that when you order peri-peri chicken or peri-peri prawns, the sauce gets cooked and that mitigates the heat level. This peri-peri burger was too hot to eat. I took the rest of it home. Doctoring it with mayo didn't help a bit. Half of it is still sitting in my fridge. I am afraid to give it to the dog.

Next time, I'll try something a little more middle of the road--like the trainsmash burger, or the monkey gland burger.

-Robb Walsh