Spicy ‘Dragon Balls’ dish left customer with ‘chemical burns,’ California lawsuit says
A customer is suing a Thai restaurant after she says a spicy appetizer caused “chemical burns” on her vocal cords.
The customer ordered a dish called “Dragon Balls,” which is a “spicy chicken ball fried with mint, shallot, green onion, cilantro, kaffir lime leave, (and) chili,” according to the menu at Coup de Thai, a Thai restaurant in Los Gatos, California.
When the customer ordered the dish at around 7 p.m. on July 15, 2021, she asked the server to have it made less spicy, says the lawsuit filed against the restaurant on July 3.
After the dish came out and the customer began to eat, she “immediately” felt her mouth, tongue, throat and nose “burn like fire,” the lawsuit says.
A person who answered the phone at Coup de Thai said the restaurant had no comment.
Coup de Thai describes itself as having a traditional menu that will cause “fireworks (to) light up your mouth,” according to its website.
The customer asked the waiter for yogurt or another dairy product that could help soothe the burning sensation, but the server told her they didn’t have yogurt and didn’t offer another option, the lawsuit says.
She then drank water and coconut water, but the burning did not subside, the lawsuit says. Cold water is not effective for quelling the burn from spicy foods because it can spread the capsaicin, which is the substance inside chilies that give them their spice, the suit says.
The customer coughed and began to lose her voice, the lawsuit says.
She was later diagnosed with “chemical burns” to both vocal cords, a part of her right nostril and her esophagus, the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit accuses the restaurant of selling food with an “unsafe level” of Thai chili that made it “unfit for human consumption,” the lawsuit says.
A Thai chili pepper called the bird’s eye pepper can range from 50,000 to 100,000 Scoville heat units, a scale used to measure the heat factor of peppers. By comparison, a jalapeno pepper has an average of 5,000 Scoville heat units.
The lawsuit accuses the restaurant of negligence and “intentional infliction of emotional distress,” among other claims. It seeks damages, including medical expenses, lost earnings and other out-of-pocket costs.
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