This redefined food fight.
A diner in China was reduced to tears after a vicious shrimp turned the tables on her at a hotpot restaurant, as seen in a TikTok video with nearly 5 million views.
In the video, taken at an undisclosed establishment, the epicure can be seen trying to dunk the live crustacean in a pot with other seafood.
However, the spunky shrimp suddenly hops out of her hand, delaying its execution via bouillabaisse.
However, its raw-venge is shortlived as the determined diner snaps the escapee up in her chopsticks.
That’s when the food decides to fight back: After nabbing the slippery shrimp with her chopsticks a second time, the critter latches onto her hand and spears her with one of its raptorial forearms, causing her to shriek in agony.
Fortunately, an offscreen employee manages to pry the prawn off the wailing woman. The clip concludes with the gourmand crying in pain over the “Beetlejuice”-esque incident.
TikTok users found her shrimp skewering highly amusing with one writing, “shrimp said you hurt me, I hurt you back.”
“Good for that shrimp !! He wasn’t going out without a fight,” exclaimed another of the hotpot ingredient’s “kriller right hook.”
Others identified the creature as a mantis shrimp, a predatory crustacean known for capturing and dispatching prey with its large raptorial claws — hence the name.
There are two types: Spearers, which impale soft-bodied prey like fish and worms, and smashers, which crack open snails and crabs by karate chopping them with their mallet-like appendages.
Smashers pack enough power in their punch to shatter glass.
Meanwhile, spearers can reportedly amputate a human finger, earning them the moniker “thumb splitter” — as the unfortunate diner in question found out Jam Press reported.
If that wasn’t enough of a predator deterrent, mantis shrimp also boast rows of hooklike spikes on their carapace like a chitinous cheese grater.
Despite their extreme armament, mantis shrimp are eaten across Asia, where they’re prized for their sweet, lobster-like meat.
