The source was eventually located and emergency crews smashed their way into the Thai Cottage restaurant in D'Arblay Street only to find that the culprit was a 9lb pot of smouldering dried chillies. Chef Chalemchai Tangjariyapoon, who had been cooking a spicy dip, was amazed to find himself at the centre of the terror scare."We only cook it once a year - it's a spicy dip with extra hot chillies that are deliberately burned. To us it smells like burned chilli and it is slightly unusual. I can understand why people who weren't Thai would not know what it was but it doesn't smell like chemicals. I'm a bit confused."
Staff at the restaurant had already been evacuated by the time the dip was discovered. Supranee Yodmuang, a Thai Cottage waitress said: "The first we knew about it was at about 4.30 in the afternoon when the fire brigade came. They led us out to where the streets had been cordoned off and we waited there for about three hours.
The spicy dip, which is a speciality at the restaurant, is made from charred chillies, garlic flakes, dried shrimps, palm sugar, shrimp paste, tamarind and vegetable oil. The restaurant, which has been open for 17 years, is considering putting up posters to warn the public during future chilli cooking sessions.
11 comments:
That is both funny and sad at the same time. Sigh.
It is both funny and sad. The dip, is yummy. And I LOVE those little pepper plants. They are so frickin cute!
those thingsx are damn spicy and will make you cry for ages.. but I still put them in my mouth nonetheless its really nice
We truly live in a very strange world. Terrorists on buses blowing themselves up, and over-reactions to cooking peppers. ::::shrug::: Happy WW to you James!
It is a tragicomic story in reality. It does amuse me that it turned out to be burnt chillies but without that knowledge the reaction was correct.
It sounds funny, but I bet that fiasco screwed up the traffic flow a bit... :0
All this in London, a city not known for being shy about spicy food! Surely it smelled better than the water from my neighbor's fish-boil when he pours it out.
I love Thai food. EWBL, if you happen to be reading, and if you also like Thai food, try the buffet at Patu, in the Village (in Houston). I do not pick out the red peppers... most days, I eat them... but so far the DHS hasn't mistaken me for a terrorist incident. :)
(I'd say something immoderate, but I notice that comment moderation has been enabled... spam, I presume?)
I#m sure it died Lone Beader. It's bad enough at the best of times as you know.
I dread to think what burnt chillies smelled like. I can imagine it was rank though. I shudder what security response would ensure from me vititing Romford town centre the day after a night on guinness and curry, Steve!
Steve- We go to a place called Dhakshin's. They offer a fabulous lunch buffet for cheap and it includes a vegetarian side to it too. Oh wait, that's Indian food. Well, what about Thai Spice buffets? They're pretty good too. I have a lot of kids so I'm all about the buffets.
Our Indian neighbors cook food so freakin spicy it burns my nose when I'm out in my driveway sometimes. Seriously, the pungeant smell just rolls out of that house. Some days I enjoy it. Others, not so much.
EWBL, thanks for the recommendation; we love most Indian food. The map says Dhakshin is at 249 and Cypresswood, which means it's slightly closer to us than, say, London, but not by much. :) Still, it's reasonably close to Stella's father's house; we'll check it out sometime.
jams, I love Guinness, and I love curry of all sorts (Thai or Indian), but I don't want to think about what the combination would do to my insides, not to mention the local air quality. :)
Your butt would be declared a biohazard and it would be banned under treaties banning chemical warfare
Post a Comment