Customer shocked at cigarette butt in Mala dish, but hawker server says ‘it’s part of the dried red chilli’

SINGAPORE — Everyone knows that mala dishes are hot and potentially addictive, but no one expects nicotine as part of the recipe to cause that effect. Unfortunately, for one diner, that’s exactly what happened. A customer named PeiYi Neo wrote on the popular COMPLAINT SINGAPORE Facebook page that she got a nasty surprise in her dish.

“OMFG! Went to eat my favourite Mala in Chinatown. And know what? When i’m almost done with my food, i realised that there’s a cig butt in it!” When i approach the staff as shown in the pic, she told me that it’s part of the dried red chilli?!” PeiYi Neo continued. She ended her post by writing that she was “disgusted” and that she “Will never come again.”

The netizen also tagged the Singapore Food Agency (SFA), an agency under the Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment responsible for overseeing food safety and security in the country.

PeiYi Neo’s post, which she put up on her own personal account as well, has gone right to the top and was shared over 500 times.

“There’s printed on wording and gold line,” she wrote in one comment.

In another comment to her post on COMPLAINT SINGAPORE, she wrote that the SFA has already called her.

Moreover, she said that the person from SFA told her it looked like a cigarette butt.

“The standard of hygiene of food handlers is atrocious, I caught many of them after visiting the toilet, they don’t wash their hand properly or not at all,” one netizen commented.

Another wrote, “Poor you. I’m feeling you. Had an experience once and the staff was horrid and find excuses too.”

/TISG

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