A QUIET dinner between two couples at a Kowloon restaurant escalated into a bizarre 'Spam war' with luncheon meat being thrown and ended with one woman being slashed by a knife, a court heard yesterday.
The tinned-meat lobbing match erupted last November 28 when the defendant, decorator Tsoi Kwan-chong, accepted a dinner invitation from his 'friend', butcher Pang Chi-lun.
The couples, who had known each other for six years, agreed to meet and settle a long-simmering dispute over remarks allegedly made by Mr Pang's wife, Ng Yuk-king, about Tsoi.
But, barely minutes after the four had sat down for tea at the Fuk Sing Lau restaurant, tempers flared and the men began swearing at one another. Both sides picked up the nearest objects and began hurling them.
'Foul words were exchanged and then I threw a teacup at him,' Mr Pang said. 'I missed. He used some canned meat he had brought with him to throw at me. He missed.' Mr Pang claimed Tsoi then pulled out a large beef knife 'to chop me with, and he chased me'.
The wives and other diners then rushed into the melee in a bid to separate the men but, in the scuffle, Ms Ng received a 2.5-centimetre gash to her finger.
