Woman sues Bay Area restaurant over spicy dish 'dangerous to life'

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

https://www.sfgate.com/food/article/bay-area-restaurant-sued-chemical-burns-18207827.php



A customer has sued a Los Gatos restaurant, alleging that an appetizer was so spicy that it gave her chemical burns on her vocal cords, nostril and esophagus, requiring her to seek medical attention.

The lawsuit, which was filed at the Superior Court of California in Santa Clara County on July 3, asserts that the customer has had ongoing health issues and loss of earnings since visiting Coup de Thai restaurant back in July 2021. At the time of her visit, the customer says she ate “Dragon Balls” — a spicy chicken appetizer prepared with dried Thai peppers — and instantly “felt her entire mouth, the roof of her mouth, her tongue, her throat and her nose burn like fire,” the lawsuit reads.

Thai chilis, which are also known as bird’s eye chilis, can range from 50,000 to 250,000 heat units on the Scoville scale, according to Thrillist. For reference, jalapeños range between 2,500 and 5,000 heat units.

“Harjasleen Walia was poisoned, made ill and burned necessitating medical care,” the lawsuit, which was first reported on by Bay Area News Group and reviewed by SFGATE, said. “Her throat and voice has been damaged. She incurred permanent injuries and will forever be damaged to her body.”

Walia is suing more than two dozen people, including the Coup de Thai owner, the chef, the server and anyone else who “influenced, designed, prepared, or participated in creating the Dragon Ball dish,” the lawsuit says. Coup de Thai declined to comment to SFGATE on the lawsuit, but a supervisor at the restaurant told Bay Area News Group, “We do not use too much chili spice in Dragon Balls,” and that the restaurant had no previous reports of the dish causing someone to seek medical attention.

[Emile]

1. The name Dragon Balls should have been a clue.

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

19. a big clue

[bucolic_frolic]

2. Unless other patrons were also injured

I think the defendants will claim allergic reaction. Standard food much like standard care in medicine. Hopefully she took some home.

[kabi knit]

3. May "Jerry Lee Lewis" Have-A-Word

You shook my nerves and rattled my nose
Too much Scoville hurts a person's toes
You broke my will but what a thrill
Now can you say goodness gracious
I ate those great Dragon Balls of fire

Then I ate my fill of that durn swill
Real nervous to but it sure was fun
Come on baby drive me hot-hot crazy
Now can you say goodness gracious
I ate those great Dragon Balls of fire

[vanlassie]

9. .

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

17. lol..good work

[hatrack]

4. I like cooking Thai food, and while bird's eye peppers are hot they're not THAT hot .. .

[niyad]

5. Also for reference, the Trinidad Scorpion pepper, which I love, has a Scoville

Heat Unit (SHU) of approximately 1.2 million.

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

18. whoa!!!

[sinkingfeeling]

6. As a result of radiation treatments 14 years ago, I can eat nothing spicy nor acidic without

blisters popping up in my mouth and throat. I'm forced to eat salad at Chili's and poori at Indian restaurants.

[niyad]

8. I am guessing that you do not order the jalapeno burgers at Chili's, then.

[niyad]

7. You know, most restaurants I go to that serve spicy foods have notices and

indicators about the heat index of their dishes, such as a number of peppers (ranging from one to five) right next to the menu item. I realize that I am, perhaps, a bit unusual, as I adore hot, the hotter the better.

It has taken her two years to get around to this? And the vague "everyone involved" bs. The word "histrionic" comes to mind. If it was an allergic reaction, one woul think that, a an adult, she would know about a senstivity to capsicum.

note to self: see if local Thai restaurants have dragon balls on their menus.

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

20. my Thai place asks "how hot" on scale of 1 to 10 for dishes listed with the pepper icon

[niyad]

10. According to the article, she informed her server that she cannot handle

spicy food. The staff says they urge people who say they cannot handle spicy to order something else.

According to her, she is damaged for life. I read several other articles about her, and she sounds completely unglued. One of her complaints is that the staff did not offer her and dairy products, like milk or ice cream. I don't generally think of ice cream when I go to a Thai restaurant.

[eppur_se_muova]

11. Dairy fat is a good solvent for capsaicin. Most people who like hot food know that dairy products ..

are the best way to cool down; Indian meals often feature hot, spicy dishes followed by yogurt dishes to cool off. Can't say I've seen Thai restaurants doing the same. I learned as a child that too much hot sauce in a Mexican restaurant could be cured with milk (or even buttermilk), or in a pinch, particularly greasy tortilla chips, which at least get the hot stuff off your lips.

Check the menu next time; many Asian restaurants offer mango or green tea ice cream. And if you ever eat in an Iranian/Persian restaurant, don't miss the chance to try their traditional ice cream -- Akhbar Mashti (actually the inventor's name) or Bastani Sonati.

[niyad]

12. Oh, I know that dairy fat helps in that situation. But I don't have a reaction, other

tha pleasure, to highly spicy foods, so I don't think of ice cream in those restaurants.

[Kali]

13. coconut ice cream!

but yeah, maybe she is burned but some of it is on her for ORDERING something called DRAGON BALLS.

[Warpy]

15. Capsaicin doesn't cause chemical burns

It only feels like that to people who aren't used to it.

Besides, what the hell did she think was going to be in them?

[Kali]

22. oh I know

such bullshit, but niyad said they didn't associate dairy with Thai and I immediately thought oh... coconut ice cream

[Warpy]

24. All the silly git needed to do was stop at a Dairy Queen on the way home

Problem solved.

[Warpy]

14. Oh, FFS

For that to happen, there had to be a foreign substance in whatever it was, and the "medical attention" should have been able to narrow it down beyond "too spicy."

She sounds like a total idiot and probably is, unless the "medical attention" involved swabs of a cleaning product or worse.

Failing that, this twit needs to stay out of NM. She'd never get out alive, chile is in everything.

[RockRaven]

16. If the food came into contact with her *vocal cords*, she is eating wrong...

Sounds like user error.

[MagickMuffin]

21. Dr. Harjasleen Walia is a board certified Neurologist

I think this is Dr. Harjasleen Walia. This person is in San Jose.

Dr. Harjasleen Walia is a board certified Neurologist with a sub-speciality in Headache Medicine and Brain Injury. She completed her residency training in 2017 in General Neurology followed by a fellowship in Headache Medicine at New York University School of Medicine in 2018 where she trained with the leading experts in the field of Headache Medicine. She has achieved awards from various Headache societies including the Scholarship for Emerging Leaders in Headache 2016 from the American Headache Society as well as a Scholarship for Emerging Headache Fellow 2017 from the Headache Cooperative of New England. She has multiple publications including Post Concussive Syndrome: A focus on post-traumatic headache and related cognitive, psychiatric and sleep issues. Review of Literature in the journal Current Neurology 2016. During her training Dr. Walia also developed a Concussion Impact Sensor which has a patent pending.


Dr. Walia believes in compassionate care with a comprehensive approach to treat the whole of the patient and not just the symptoms of illness. Patients are treated based on pathophysiologic causes of their illness utilizing both Eastern and Western medicine for a complimentary approach to treatment. A solid foundational knowledge of anatomy and pathophysiology allows Dr. Walia to use a multimodal approach to treatment including medications, peripheral nerve blocks, myofascial release, botox for migraine, trigger point injections and acupuncture.

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

23. oh wow... a brain doctor