Stuart Lynn spent nearly £30 in his local Indian restaurant, and asked for his
venison curry to be served very mild.
This is quite a normal request, so he was shocked when his curry order came with a receipt marked 'VERY MILD, WHITE PPL'.
The 44-year-old believes the note was a slur, suggesting that white people can't handle curries that are not mild.
"I was not happy at all - it said 'white people' next to my curry."
Stuart Lynn
He has complained to the
curry house in Southall, west London.
Stuart, who works as a supervisor at Heathrow Airport, told
The Mirror: "I was not happy at all - it said 'white people' next to my curry.
"It implies we can't deal with strong curries. I do like a hot curry sometimes. I just fancied a mild one for a change. I thought it was very rude of them.
"It was the first time I've been in there and I won't be going back."
He said that him and his partner were put off their meal by the "rude" receipt.
The owner of the restaurant, Ruby Kandasamy, clarified what they meant by "white ppl":
"Under white ppl, we don't mean white people, but a white sauce made from milk, single cream, coconut milk and spices we add to our dishes when a curry is requested mild.
"'Ppl' means 'milk.' "However, we have decided to change the way we inform the kitchen and will mention 'add white ppl' or 'with white sauce' to avoid any confusion with our customers.
"We want to apologize to the customer for any inconvenience and misunderstanding, we hope the curry was nice and he or she will visit us again."
She did not clarify the origins of the word "ppl".
Stuart does not believe her. He said: "What other colour is milk? I spoke to an Indian friend of mine and
'ppl' doesn't mean milk. They're just trying to get out of it."
