From the Reddit explanation:

> From an account told to Witold Szabłowski by Abu Ali, a former cook for Saddam Hussein. "One day, President Saddam Hussein invited some friends onto his boat. He took along several bodyguards, his secretary, and me, his personal chef, and we set off on a cruise down the river Tigris. Salim, one of the bodyguards, said to me, “Abu Ali, sit down, you’ve got the day off today. The president says he’s going to cook for everyone. He’s going to make koftas for us.” Half an hour later, Salim came back carrying a plate of koftas. “The president made some for you too,” he said. I thanked him and said it was very good of the president, broke off a bit of meat, and wrapped it in pita bread. I tried it and felt as if I’d burst into flames! “Water, quick, water!” I threw a glass of water down my throat, but it didn’t help. “More water!” My cheeks and jaw were burning, and there were tears pouring from my eyes. I was terrified. Poison? I thought. But why? What for?" Turns out, Saddam had been given it by someone as a gift, but because he didn’t like very spicy food, he decided to play a joke by trying it out on his friends. https://harpers.org/archive/2020/03/koftaesque/