Cooking on half lit charcoal - weird taste

I have a kamado cooker, and had a weird taste on my food today, is this typical?

I lit the lump charcoal in the cooker, and waited until around half of it was burning and the cooker temp was 200F, and then put my lamb and chicken on it. While the cook was underway the temp rose to around 600F as more of the coal lit.

When I ate the food, there was an acrid/harsh taste to it. None of the food was burnt. Based on this, I would normally conclude that putting the food on before all the coal was lit lead to the off flavour, however based on the Minion method etc.. this seems incorrect.

Where did I go wrong?

Was doing lamb chops and thinly sliced chicken breast so was looking to get it grilled. Using Big Steel Keg.

Thankyou. Thats exactly what it does taste like, ie smoke from a dirty fire. However, to me while I cook with wood and expect a fire in the true sense of the word, when I cook with charcoal I normally expect just glowing coals that light other coals to begin glowing over time.

What would make a coal fire dirty vs not? I use the same lump coal on my offset and have no issues. However, on my offset I use a chimney to fully light all coal before dumping in the firebox.

Do other people experience a great tasting smoke from partially lighting coal in their kamado and putting the food on while the rest of the coal catches?