The Problematic nature of BBC's recent viral egg fried rice recipe

[eebster]

And they still fucked up.

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Can we leave it at that? They made a bad recipe, that's all there is to this. Why see something offensive and insensitive in everything.
Do you think this is exclusive to asian cuisine? Look up italian, spanish, turkish cooking videos made by non-ethnic people on Youtube. They always fuck things up. So what

 

[badatorigami]

This thread is even worse than the previous locked one.

To the people who are mad about the rice, it's literally just a bad recipe, that's it. Yes, western media taking other cultures' cuisine and making it worse can be an issue, but it's not like they were saying "this is the only right way to make asian fried rice". It's just a bad/alternative recipe. East asian cuisine and it's representation in culture is not being harmed by the recipe.

What is harming east asian representation is the asshole in the video, speaking in a stereotypical "funny" (for white people) east asian accent, when he's perfectly capable of speaking without one. You can say "oh, this is actually funny in Singapore and Malaysia", but the audience for this video is probably gonna be white people who want to laugh at the funny east asian man with the hilarious accent.
I get that the guy's schtick here is to play the funny indignant asian uncle, but he should be doing that shit in Malaysian or whatever east asian language he speaks if that's the goal, not English. But of course if he doesn't do English, he wouldn't get all the views from the white gawkers.

I cannot believe that the recipe is what people are focusing on.

 

[Antiwhippy]

Can we leave it at that? They made a bad recipe, that's all there is to this. Why see something offensive and insensitive in everything.
Do you think this is exclusive to asian cuisine? Look up italian, spanish, turkish cooking videos made by non-ethnic people on Youtube. They always fuck things up. So what

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To be fair I see a lot of angry italians in the comments for most of those videos lol.

 

[SilentPanda]

Can we leave it at that? They made a bad recipe, that's all there is to this. Why see something offensive and insensitive in everything.
Do you think this is exclusive to asian cuisine? Look up italian, spanish, turkish cooking videos made by non-ethnic people on Youtube. They always fuck things up. So what

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I don't think BBC is the same as youtube?

 

[Trick_GSF]

How about we all just make rice how we wanna make rice? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[Antiwhippy]

I get that the guy's schtick here is to play the funny indignant asian uncle, but he should be doing that shit in Malaysian or whatever east asian language he speaks if that's the goal, not English.

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Most of us speak english though, because it's the Lingua Franca for the Chinese of that area. Especially in Singapore, but Malaysian chinese don't speak Malay unless it's to other Malays, and we speak a mix of English and Chinese depending on the situation. And some of the newer Malaysian chinese aren't as fluent in Malay and is more fluent in english.

Remember, that area was a former British colony not even a century ago.

 

[Chainsawkitten]

That's why you wash rice *before* cooking it, to my knowledge. I've never drained rice after cooking it (rice cookers are lovely!)

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Washing the rice will remove 10%.

 

[sheaaaa]

Most of us speak english though, because it's the Lingua Franca for the Chinese of that area. Especially in Singapore, but Malaysian chinese don't speak Malay unless it's to other Malays, and we speak a mix of English and Chinese depending on the situation.

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only made it through10 seconds or so but the accent he's doing isn't really a thing here tho. Sounds almost like a Hong Kong English accent.

but the irony of someone saying that a shitty East Asian recipe in as big and influential publication as the BBC doesn't hurt representation of our culture, then saying ignorant nonsense like "he should be speaking in Malaysian" is some real shit huh

It might be news to some that we savages in Southeast Asia know and speak English

 

[blue_whale]

Can we leave it at that? They made a bad recipe, that's all there is to this. Why see something offensive and insensitive in everything.
Do you think this is exclusive to asian cuisine? Look up italian, spanish, turkish cooking videos made by non-ethnic people on Youtube. They always fuck things up. So what

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Yeah i don't really see this as insensitive just kind of bad/mediocre. Also this is by far not the worst fried rice video on youtube.

 

[HeavenlyOne]

Washing and cooking white rice isn't comparable to a Sunday roast. It's a kitchen basic. A better comparison would be to ask a Briton to make some toast; would 90% fuck that up?

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Australian here. I couldn't tell you how many slices of bread I've put in the toaster, but never in my life have I ever cooked rice. I'm going to go ahead and assume it's a little more involved than "stick it in the thing and wait" otherwise this thread wouldn't be a thing.

BRB, gonna put some rice in the toaster.

 

[Antiwhippy]

only made it through10 seconds or so but the accent he's doing isn't really a thing here tho. Sounds almost like a Hong Kong English accent.

but the irony of someone saying that a shitty East Asian recipe in as big and influential publication as the BBC doesn't hurt representation of our culture, then saying ignorant nonsense like "he should be speaking in Malaysian" is some real shit huh

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It's like a really exaggerated cantonese style talk lol. Peranakans, Teo Chews or other Chinese dialects wouldn't have that kind of english accent.

But yeah, saying he should speak Malay is like WTF.

 

[Springy]

Australian here. I couldn't tell you how many slices of bread I've put in the toaster, but never in my life have I ever cooked rice. I'm going to go ahead and assume it's a little more involved than "stick it in the thing and wait" otherwise this thread wouldn't be a thing.

BRB, gonna put some rice in the toaster.

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It sounds for all the world like you're agreeing with me as to the comparable cultural ubiquity of the two despite the obnoxious tone. Thanks for the backup.

 

[badatorigami]

Gotcha, thank you sincerely for the insight. I'm admittedly lacking in knowledge of Malaysian culture which is something that I aim to remedy.

Do Malaysian (either malay or malay chinese) folk in general speak English in that caricatured accent though? I would assume that there'd be less of an accent if it's lingua franca. Also, if you watch any snippet of his stand-up videos, you would see that he can speak English perfectly fine without the accent.

As a chinese-american, I find his schtick pretty disgusting. He's literally doing this.


Edit: inserted wrong link

 

[SilentPanda]

Australian here. I couldn't tell you how many slices of bread I've put in the toaster, but never in my life have I ever cooked rice. I'm going to go ahead and assume it's a little more involved than "stick it in the thing and wait" otherwise this thread wouldn't be a thing.

BRB, gonna put some rice in the toaster.

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With a rice cooker, it is wash rice, add water, put in rice cooker and wait.

 

[sheaaaa]

It's like a really exaggerated cantonese style talk lol. Peranakans, Teo Chews or other Chinese dialects wouldn't have that kind of english accent.

But yeah, saying he should speak Malay is like WTF.

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yea I moved to HK from Singapore a few years ago and it definitely is a Cantonese-flecked accent. Can't say I've heard anyone have it in 3 decades in Singapore.

 

[TheMrPliskin]

I'll admit I've seen more than a few different people prepare fried rice like this so I wouldn't have necessarily considered it to be wrong in anyway. That being said I can see how this approach is a case of just rolling over Asian culture, which is a bit odd given that they did a separate thing that actually shows the correct way of doing things. Probably a case of different people involved in the production but it's still an odd cock up to make.

 

[Atraveller]

I don't understand what the problem is

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I've no idea what OP is talking about though.

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I'm so confused by this thread.
"Problematic" is surely reserved for worse things that badly cooked rice?

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How about we all just make rice how we wanna make rice? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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It's about BBC having Asian input on how to cook rice, elects to ignore it in another video, and have an Asian cook stick to BBC's terrible recipe. It's about gentrifying Asian culture and removing Asian voices.

 

[Antiwhippy]

Gotcha, thank you sincerely for the insight. I'm admittedly lacking in knowledge of Malaysian culture which is something that I aim to remedy.

Do Malaysian (either malay or malay chinese) folk in general speak English in that caricatured accent though? I would assume that there'd be less of an accent if it's lingua franca. Also, if you watch any snippet of his stand-up videos, you would see that he can speak English perfectly fine without the accent.

As a chinese-american, I find his schtick pretty disgusting. He's literally doing this.

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I've seen some do it as a joke. I've expereinced more in the form of us Singaporeans making fun of Singlish, but it's definitely something we still take pride in.



It's weird. I know where your perspective would come from but it's a little different for us.

 

[Whaleman]

So if I like my rice to be a bit sticky and clump together (aka not washing it first) am i a monster? Also I dont own a rice cooker and use pan is that also bad? Otherwise i cook it like the second woman letting it absorb all the water, To the person mentioning boiling burgers i am sure there are good recipes involving that.

 

[Royalan]

Stiffer rice usually means it's drier though so it's better to absorb the oil/sauces.

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Yep! I love cooking with leftover rice for this reason.

I'm just brainstorming for why anyone...would think this was a good thing to do with rice. lol

 

[The Fabled Englishman]

Australian here. I couldn't tell you how many slices of bread I've put in the toaster, but never in my life have I ever cooked rice. I'm going to go ahead and assume it's a little more involved than "stick it in the thing and wait" otherwise this thread wouldn't be a thing.

BRB, gonna put some rice in the toaster.

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Really? In Melbourne, the population more or less subsists on Asian food staples, whether they happen to be Asian or not. It's ubiquitous due to the immigrant population.

Not that it's enormously relevant anyway since cooking rice is a basic cooking skill common to cultures ranging from Asia, to Africa to the Americas.

 

[erlim]

I just really don't give a rats ass about Ill prepared rice when that dude is broadcasting some damaging racist caricature on the net.

I am 100% ethnically Chinese and guess what, I cook Basmati rice like that. I don't own a rice cooker, and we never ate Asian cuisine growing up. Despite my ethnicity, I can't help that it wasn't an embedded part of my culinary experience.

As an actor and performer, I can absolutely control not going out there and perpetuating every damaging stereotype to East Asian men in the western world. This dude intentionally doesn't, so my problem is with him.

 

[Menchi]

I'd say it's a bad recipe. But then it isn't really pushed as authentic either, even the comparison to Chinese takeaway isn't that. I think you'd be hard pressed to call the majority of Chinese takeaway in the UK in any way authentic as they've so far removed from the original recipes.

 

[Big Boy]

It's not insensitive or problematic. It is simply a shit way to cook rice.

The youtuber is unwatchable though

 

[astro]

It is complicated because they are fucking idiots! Have you been to England? You need to ease people into it. The level of cooking proficiency is very low...

Plus as has already been said there already are recipes there that suggest the 'proper' way of cooking rice.

And to those saying, get a rice cooker. Sure, but not hugely helpful when someone is about to cook and looking for a recipe.

Obviously it is a bad recipe, nobody disagrees with that!

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England is made up of English people from many types of cultures, and many of them are amazing cooks.

Not sure why this stereotype persists in 2020...

Washing and cooking white rice isn't comparable to a Sunday roast. It's a kitchen basic. A better comparison would be to ask a Briton to make some toast; would 90% fuck that up?

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Toast is a worse example...

 

[Deleted member 21709]

I don't see what is so objectionable about the original video? It isn't pretending to be the only or superior way to cook egg fried rice. It is just a simple and accessible one. I mean they are unlikely to recommend the use of MSG because it is not an ingredient widely available in British kitchens. Similarly rice cookers are not widely available.

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This is about MSG?

 

[Atraveller]

As an actor and performer, I can absolutely control not going out there and perpetuating every damaging stereotype to East Asian men in the western world. This dude intentionally doesn't, so my problem is with him.

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It's the reason why I can never like Ken Jeong. And it sucks that he is one of the more recognizable male Asian faces in Hollywood.

 

[erlim]

It's about BBC having Asian input on how to cook rice, elects to ignore it in another video, and have an Asian cook stick to BBC's terrible recipe. It's about gentrifying Asian culture and removing Asian voices.

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Yet the youtuber who has enough presence and visibility to be the voice of opposition to said colonialism opts to use his energy to perpetuate an even worse stereotypes.

 

[Big Boy]

Washing and cooking white rice isn't comparable to a Sunday roast. It's a kitchen basic. A better comparison would be to ask a Briton to make some toast; would 90% fuck that up?

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Yeah... I went to Uni with someone who buttered the bread before toasting it.

 

[Pet]

I'm reminded of all the people that say shit like "qq food doesn't belong to a culture, anyone should be allowed to cook whatever food they want qqqqqq" and then this thread where someone is fucking it up badly as usual "but what's the problem, people can make food how they like."

 

[Atraveller]

Yet the youtuber who has enough presence and visibility to be the voice of opposition to said colonialism opts to use his energy to perpetuate an even worse stereotypes.

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It can be both.

 

[HeavenlyOne]

It sounds for all the world like you're agreeing with me as to the comparable cultural ubiquity of the two despite the obnoxious tone. Thanks for the backup.

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Thank you for recognising the importance of toast in Anglo culture. It doesn't really get the respect it deserves.

With a rice cooker, it is wash rice, add water, put in rice cooker and wait.

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But I don't have a rice cooker SilentPanda! Help me, my children are starving!

Really? In Melbourne, the population more or less subsists on Asian food staples, whether they happen to be Asian or not. It's ubiquitous due to the immigrant population.

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I exclusively consume rice that have been pre-cooked by my local Chinese restaurant.

Not that it's enormously relevant anyway since cooking rice is a basic cooking skill common to cultures ranging from Asia, to Africa to the Americas.

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WHAT?!?1 Then how are the whites getting it so wrong?!

I just really don't give a rats ass about Ill prepared rice when that dude is broadcasting some damaging racist caricature on the net.

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100%

 

[Aprikurt]

I don't know about the video itself, but recipe gatekeeping is cringy as fuck. Everybody does things differently.

 

[erlim]

It's the reason why I can never like Ken Jeong. And it sucks that he is one of the more recognizable male Asian faces in Hollywood.

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I agree. Like I said, I got the same drop in my gut watching the antics of that youtuber as I do seeing Mickey Rooney in Breakfast at Tiffany's or Long Duk Dong in Sixteen Candles. Like get that wretched shit out of here.

 

[Mantrox]

I dont understand the fixation with having a Rice cooker.

Cooking plain rice on a pan is so easy.
A dose of Rice, double the water. That's it.
When the water is gone, turn the heat off and let it be for few minutes.

The unfunny accent on the other hand is idiotic.

 

[Royalan]

I don't know about the video itself, but recipe gatekeeping is cringy as fuck. Everybody does things differently.

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I dunno. I think there's value in preserving cultural traditions in cooking. Or, at the very least, acknowledging when you're deviating from them.

 

[Shadownet]

I don't understand how draining rice is a thing.

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That's not even the worst thing. She washed the rice after it was cooked. I was just... smh.

 

[badatorigami]

I've seen some do it as a joke. I've expereinced more in the form of us Singaporeans making fun of Singlish, but it's definitely something we still take pride in.



It's weird. I know where your perspective would come from but it's a little different for us.

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Thanks, will check out the video. I agree that our difference in opinion on this video likely comes from our different east asian cultures.I also do regret saying that he should do his videos in malay, did not intend to gatekeep the man and I do feel bad about doing exactly that.

However, I do stand by my opinion that the BBC recipe is far less harmful than this asian man's video. White people will see him doing this accent and find it funny; maybe some east asian folk will find it funny if a white person comes up to them doing the accent as a joke, but the reality is that all east asian people get lumped together as a singular whole, and I'm going to guess that most east asian folk do not. At the end of the day, the recipe is a bad recipe that's now a meme and will therefore never be taken seriously as representative of east asian cuisine, while the accent will be enjoyed and used by white people in the western world to poke fun at east asian folk.

 

[PJV3]

The british love boiling things to death, i've had some really shitty rice over the years, it's kinda traditional.

 

[Whaleman]

When I cook rice I add fat to it. Usually butter.

 

[Kaseoki]

Gotcha, thank you sincerely for the insight. I'm admittedly lacking in knowledge of Malaysian culture which is something that I aim to remedy.

Do Malaysian (either malay or malay chinese) folk in general speak English in that caricatured accent though? I would assume that there'd be less of an accent if it's lingua franca. Also, if you watch any snippet of his stand-up videos, you would see that he can speak English perfectly fine without the accent.

As a chinese-american, I find his schtick pretty disgusting. He's literally doing this.


Edit: inserted wrong link

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This is a really bad example though. Sure it's problematic when a white person does caricature impressions of another ethnicity. But what if someone does a caricature of their own ethnicity though? I don't know the ethnic background of this Youtuber so I can't comment of this one exactly, but there have been plenty of examples where Asian Americans have done caricatures of their own ethnicity. Examples I can think of at the top of my head are Kim Chi (Korean) doing Kim Jong Un and Plastique Tiara (Vietnamese) doing Lovely Mimi.

 

[Aprikurt]

I dunno. I think there's value in preserving cultural traditions in cooking. Or, at the very least, acknowledging when you're deviating from them.

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But in reality that recipe has probably been changed or altered half a dozen times anyway.

BBC Good Food do this shit all the time, cream in carbonara, carrots and celery in spaghetti bolognese... You can ignore it, or add your own thing. To me cooking is putting your own spin on things. If you're following a recipe 1:1 every time and not experimenting with what you can do outside of it by changing it, it's no fun.

And always the comments section full of absolute outrage. "Celery?! Sorry, if you're doing it this way, you're NOT doing _____", "My grandmother did it by..." etc etc etc. I don't think it's cultural preservation, I think it's snobbery of the highest order.

 

[Midgarian]

It's about BBC having Asian input on how to cook rice, elects to ignore it in another video, and have an Asian cook stick to BBC's terrible recipe. It's about gentrifying Asian culture and removing Asian voices.

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The BBC is not a place I would associate with gentrifying Asian culture and removing Asian voices.

It's arguably the World's most and certainly most prominent multicultural and minority and marginalised elevating media outlets in the World and their World outlets in non-English languages are all slanted towards progressive politics.

I think you are reading a false pattern from this isolated incident.

I can recall watching a BBC documentary about Chinese food that was hosted by a Chinese/British Chinese person for example, taking a very in-depth and nuanced look at Chinese cuisine and modern cuisine trends in China.

One of the most famous and popular celebrity chefs in the UK at the moment (via BBC programming) is a headscarf wearing ethnic Bengali Muslim woman.

I know people often use the "Problem in America doesn't exist here" argument in ignorance and sometimes even in bad faith, but I genuinely think it applies in this instance.

I don't know about the video itself, but recipe gatekeeping is cringy as fuck. Everybody does things differently.

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Absolutely. I think the "wrong way" of doing rice being described here is actually the normal way in Turkish Cuisine in which rice is a traditional staple.

 

[SilentPanda]

Thank you for recognising the importance of toast in Anglo culture. It doesn't really get the respect it deserves.

But I don't have a rice cooker SilentPanda! Help me, my children are starving!

I exclusively consume rice that have been pre-cooked by my local Chinese restaurant.

WHAT?!?1 Then how are the whites getting it so wrong?!

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Step 1. Measure rice
Step 2. Wash rice
Step 3. Let rice sit in water for about 20~30 minute
Step 4. Water to Rice should be 1:1, and water should be over rice
Step 5. Bring water to boiling, turn down heat to med or low
Step 6. When it's big boiling, turn heat off, put lid on, let sit for 15~20 minute
Step 7. Open and eat rice.

 

[Jintor]

I get that the guy's schtick here is to play the funny indignant asian uncle, but he should be doing that shit in Malaysian or whatever east asian language he speaks if that's the goal, not English. But of course if he doesn't do English, he wouldn't get all the views from the white gawkers.

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you know like... a shittonne of people in malaysia/singapore speak english and that's actually a normal ass thing right

like even if he was aiming it at malaysian/singaporeans specifically as you demand he would just speak english because thats what malaysians/singaporeans speak

 

[Antiwhippy]

The BBC is not a place I would associate with gentrifying Asian culture and removing Asian voices.

It's arguably the World's most and certainly most prominent multicultural and minority and marginalised elevating media outlets in the World and their World outlets in non-English languages are all slanted towards progressive politics.

I think you are reading a false pattern from this isolated incident.

I can recall watching a BBC documentary about Chinese food that was hosted by a Chinese/British Chinese person for example, taking a very in-depth and nuanced look at Chinese cuisine and modern cuisine trends in China.

One of the most famous and popular celebrity chefs in the UK at the moment (via BBC programming) is a headscarf wearing ethnic Bengali Muslim woman.

I know people often use the "Problem in America doesn't exist here" argument in ignorance and sometimes even in bad faith, but I genuinely think it applies in this instance.

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I mean.

Then why not do it in this case.

Absolutely. I think the "wrong way" of doing rice being described here is actually the normal way in Turkish Cuisine in which rice is a traditional staple.

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Great, glad to see they are showcasing a turkish recipe here.

Also I don't understand why people think all rice cooks the same lol. Or that different recipes don't need differently cooked rice.

 

[badatorigami]

you know like... a shittonne of people in malaysia/singapore speak english and that's actually a normal ass thing right

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Yeah sorry, I was wrong here and have apologized above.

 

[Atraveller]

The BBC is not a place I would associate with gentrifying Asian culture and removing Asian voices.

It's arguably the World's most and certainly most prominent multicultural and minority and marginalised elevating media outlets in the World and their World outlets in non-English languages are all slanted towards progressive politics.

I think you are reading a false pattern from this isolated incident.

I can recall watching a BBC documentary about Chinese food that was hosted by a Chinese/British Chinese person for example, taking a very in-depth and nuanced look at Chinese cuisine and modern cuisine trends in China.

One of the most famous and popular celebrity chefs in the UK at the moment (via BBC programming) is a headscarf wearing ethnic Bengali Muslim woman.

I know people often use the "Problem in America doesn't exist here" argument in ignorance and sometimes even in bad faith, but I genuinely think it applies in this instance.


Absolutely. I think the "wrong way" of doing rice being described here is actually the normal way in Turkish Cuisine in which rice is a traditional staple.

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But then again that doesn't mean every decision maker at different levels of the organization is infallible.

Hersha Patel (the cook) said that she "know how to cook rice" (implying the recipe was wrong), but she had to present "BBC's recipe".

 

[Pet]

I don't know about the video itself, but recipe gatekeeping is cringy as fuck. Everybody does things differently.

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Yes, such gatekeeping.

We might as well say she made paella. Or risotto. Rice pilaf? Why does it matter what we call it? Why are we gatekeeping dishes? Techniques, ingredients, none of that matters I suppose.

Like ffs you're not supposed to overbeat eggs when you make fluffy pancakes because it ruins the texture. You get a gummy, rough pancake. If someone is presenting a video in how to make light, fluffy pancakes, and they overbeat the eggs and then instruct the viewers to inject carbon dioxide into the batter and add in root beer to make the pancakes "nice and fluffy" ? everyone would be like what the fucking fuck you're doing it wrong. That's not recipe gatekeeping, that's just knowing how to prepare an ingredient.

The BBC is not a place I would associate with gentrifying Asian culture and removing Asian voices.

It's arguably the World's most and certainly most prominent multicultural and minority and marginalised elevating media outlets in the World and their World outlets in non-English languages are all slanted towards progressive politics.

I think you are reading a false pattern from this isolated incident.

I can recall watching a BBC documentary about Chinese food that was hosted by a Chinese/British Chinese person for example, taking a very in-depth and nuanced look at Chinese cuisine and modern cuisine trends in China.

One of the most famous and popular celebrity chefs in the UK at the moment (via BBC programming) is a headscarf wearing ethnic Bengali Muslim woman.

I know people often use the "Problem in America doesn't exist here" argument in ignorance and sometimes even in bad faith, but I genuinely think it applies in this instance.


Absolutely. I think the "wrong way" of doing rice being described here is actually the normal way in Turkish Cuisine in which rice is a traditional staple.

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Lol funny you should say that, because personally as an Asian American I find BBC to be fucking awful and horrible in its coverage of Asia/Asian topics. I watch BBC News and the way they cover anything Asian is so goddamn patronizing, condescending, and disgusting.

 

[Antiwhippy]

Like if I'm making sushi and I show people this as the way to make sushi rice would people go "BUT WHO CARES HOW IT'S DONE"