The "Tin House Gang" (Engine 232, TCU732) responded to a pulled box at Howard Ave. & St. Marks Place in Brownsville and observed heavy smoke coming from a 3rd floor window. A woman leans out of the same window and exclaims: "theres no fire here firemen".

232's Captain, Frank Loutrel, accompanied by three firemen enter the building, proceed to the apartment, enter the open door and find a large stock-pot issuing dark and acrid smoke. The firemen shut off the gas and douse the pot with the "can", while the woman, now quite agitated, says: "I told you there was no fire here". With gloves on, the can-man reaches into the pot and pulls something out - a shoe. The woman was cooking shoes!

Not to be confused with the normal foul taste in your mouth, all four firefighters could not get that taste to go away; not from brushing teeth, gargling with mouthwash, drinking coffee, or even having shrimp scampi from a nearby Italian restaurant. The next morning at shift-change, every one of those guys went home still tasting the effects of exposure to "shoe-stew" (Newt Tanner)

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Thanks, Ira Hoffman