Bring a jug of water, urgent. And maybe an ambulance: An American woman is suing a Thai restaurant on the grounds that the first dish served to her there was too spicy. How too spicy? Well, the diner claims that the dish – whose name is "dragon balls" and is made from fried chicken balls and Thai chili pepper – caused her serious health damage and even put her "life in danger." "This is a dish that may harm an ordinary person who visits the restaurant and orders it as an appetizer," the lawsuit states.
The plaintiff, Harjaslin Valya, arrived in July 2021 at the Coupe de Thai restaurant in Los Gatos, California, where she ordered the tempting dish. Immediately after taking her first bite, she felt her "mouth, tongue, throat and nose" burning. It should be noted that this type of Thai pepper, also known as "bird's eye pepper", is particularly spicy and may reach up to 250,2 heat units on the Scoville scale (a scale for measuring the spiciness of peppers, according to their active ingredient content). By comparison, the spiciness of regular jalapeño peppers ranges from 500,5 to 000,<> heat units on the Scoville scale. Ouch.
"Rajaslin Valya was poisoned, burned and had to receive medical treatment. Her throat and voice suffered irreparable damage," the lawsuit also alleges, targeting about 25 people — including the restaurant's owner, chef, waiter and anyone else who "influenced, designed, prepared or participated in the preparation of the dragon ball dish." It was also reported that Walia asked the waiter before ordering if it was possible to make the dish less spicy, since it is sensitive to spicy dishes. The waiter, it was claimed, replied in the affirmative. He said he would ask the cook to moderate the intensity of the dish. However, as mentioned, the dragon balls served were quite spicy, and immediately after the first bite she asked the waiter for yogurt to soothe her throat. The waiter replied that the restaurant did not have yogurt and the frightened diner "drank a whole glass of coconut water and other water, but the pain did not lessen."
Chicken balls (illustration), photo: Getty Images
Valya is demanding compensation and reimbursement from the restaurant and its people for the medical treatment it received, loss of work capacity, court costs and more.
In response, a restaurant manager told a local news channel that "we don't use too much chili in our dragon balls," stressing that this was the first time a complaint had been received about the dish. The manager added that the restaurant does not tend to make dragon balls less spicy even after request, and if the customer tells the waiter that he is not okay with spicy food, the waiter should offer to order another dish instead. In Valya's case, it seems, this did not happen.
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