11 JANUARY 1992, Page 22

Hot stuff

Sir: In the Christmas issue, Digby Ander- son's 'Food' column contains a recipe for kimchi, that excellent Korean preserve. A warning, though: while mixing in the three tablespoons of red pepper powder (and by hand is the only way), gentlemen in particu- lar should wear a pair of washing-up gloves.

Those who omit this precaution will suf- fer a rising crescendo of exquisite pain, beginning immediately after they next relieve themselves; and will be doomed to spend (as I did on New Year's Eve) an ago- nising hour with an ice-filled towel clamped around their burning organ.

Eric Sheldon

Kisaichi Yamate 1-7-7 Katano, Osaka 576, Japan.