Welcome Guest ( Log In | Register )

Outline · [ Standard ] · Linear+

> The Crispy Chicken Saga is Fake News and Wrong!, Malaysian #triggered and kecoh ... ?!?

views
     
TSdeodorant
post Apr 4 2018, 09:52 PM, updated 6y ago

Surfing LYN instead of Working.
*******
Senior Member
5,691 posts

Joined: Mar 2006


According to this guy: https://medium.com/@ivanhong_25005/everythi...ong-cd9342bb8ec

Since MCMC don't approve medium.com, so here is the whole article:

Everything You Know About the “Crispy Rendang” Saga is Wrong
TL;DR culture at its worst

You think you’ve heard the story. John Torode; a white, male chef on MasterChef UK trample on a Malaysian macik’s rendang for not having crispy skin. “Cultural imperialism at its finest”, you think to yourself. White boy ignorance as usual. Cue the the internet brigade to educate this Western barbarian with dank memes and Twitter screenshots.

These days, it’s safe to assume that if a piece of content shared on the internet is attention-grabbing, it was designed that way through a heady brew of selective reporting, and shit stirring. That’s the only way marketers can get you to clickthrough, and more importantly, share pieces of content — often without even reading.

Here’s a list of facts about the “Crispy Rendang” saga to set the record straight:

1) John Torode Is No Stranger To Rendang
No, Torode is not projecting his “Western”, Eurocentric hunger for crispy fried chicken onto macik Zaleha’s dish. In a 10-part series which aired in 2015 on the UK’s Good Food channel — John Torode’s Malaysian Adventure — Torode goes on a culinary tour of Malaysian food.

In fact, in one episode filmed in Langkawi, Torode is shown how rendang is made — from scratch (albeit with duck as the protein).

During the now-infamous Masterchef UK episode, Torode demonstrates his familiarity with Malaysian cuisine by giving the audience a run-down of the classic nasi lemak dish, saying that the rice has to be served with not too much coconut milk, the sambal has to be ferociously hot, and the chicken’s meat has to be “really, really soft and falling apart”.

Torode is both familiar with, and appreciative of Malaysian cuisine — including rendang too.

2) Torode Did Not Criticize The Rendang for Not Being “Crispy”
There were two chefs on the panel — John Torode, and Gregg Wallace. Now bear in mind, that Torode knows what good rendang looks, and tastes like.

Zaleha presented the two judges with a luxurious plate of nasi lemak with chicken rendang, roasted peanuts, sambal prawn, crispy fried anchovies, cucumber slices, and rolled omelette strips.

After tasting, it was the first judge, Gregg Wallace who criticized the chicken skin for not being crispy enough. Yes, of course — the only judge who hadn’t tasted rendang before.

Torode would know better, Wallace, of course, didn’t.

“I like the rendang flavour, there’s a coconut sweetness, however, the chicken skin isn’t crispy. It can’t be eaten and all the sauce is on the skin, I can’t eat,” Wallace said.

2) Torode Was Judging the Dish as Nasi Lemak
Yes, you read that right — the dish in question, was not a standalone rendang. Nor was it served as a side dish alongside many others — which is how most of us in Southeast Asia would normally have it. Zaleha was serving the rendang as part of nasi lemak.

Zaleha, who hails from Kuantan, Malaysia, explained that the dish was her childhood favorite.

“I used to save my pocket money to buy nasi lemak on Friday and there was a special stall outside our school that used to sell the best nasi lemak for 20 sen, it is very special,” Zaleha told Torode while she was preparing the dish.

After, Gregg made the infamous “crispy rendang comment”, Torode chimed in, saying that the “chicken rendang on the side is a mistake”.

Now, a quick Google image search of “nasi lemak” shows that of the nasi lemak dishes which served chicken as the main protein of the dish, well over half of them are — you guessed it — crispy, fried, chicken.

In most parts of the Malay Peninsula, I have never ordered nasi lemak that came without crispy fried chicken, or fish — unless I deliberately chose to go with the a la carte option where I have complete freedom over the choice of protein and vegetables. I’m betting that most Malaysians and Singaporeans expect the same too.

That’s not to say that nasi lemak is never served with rendang — or that nasi lemak is always served with some type crispy meat. But more often than not, it is.

And perhaps that’s what Greg Wallace — not Torode — was expecting too.

The way Zaleha plated the dish does look a lot like Ayam Panggang, which, though not crispy, often has a much more tender and juicy flesh due to the shorter cooking time and the use of a grill.

3) Torode Judged the Rendang On its Own Merits
But Torode didn’t simply dismiss the dish because he thought the choice of rendang as a side dish didn’t match his expectation of nasi lemak. Torode likely knew from his time in Malaysia that nasi lemak is often served a la carte.

Torode’s second critique of the dish was the chicken rendang itself:

“It hasn’t had enough time to cook down and become lovely and soft and falling apart. Instead the chicken is just tough and not really flavoursome,” he said.

Now, that’s an entirely different critique entirely.

In my experience, chicken rendang is much rarer than beef or mutton rendang. Except perhaps to Nonyas — who seem exceptionally skilled at not making the chicken meat dry and tough.

Was Zaleha’s chicken really as bad as Torode claimed? I have no way of knowing for sure, but I’m inclined to trust his professional judgement of the appropriate flavor penetration, and texture for stewed/fried/grilled chicken.

P.S. One of my readers alerted me to the fact that the MasterChef UK winner in 2014 was Ping Coombs — a Malaysian. Interestingly enough, Ping also appeared in Torode’s Malaysian Adventure TV series.

Conclusions:
Torode knows Malaysian cuisine, and rendang.
Torode didn’t make the “crispy rendang” comment — Gregg did.
Torode didn’t like how the rendang was paired with nasi lemak
Torode didn’t like how the chicken was “tough” and “not really flavorsome”. He did not expect it to be crispy.
TSdeodorant
post Apr 4 2018, 09:57 PM

Surfing LYN instead of Working.
*******
Senior Member
5,691 posts

Joined: Mar 2006


QUOTE(:3mushy:3 @ Apr 4 2018, 09:56 PM)
Good essay effort, lots of words.

The TLDR is, the Torode guy who we all rage against, wasn't even the one who complained that the chicken skin wasn't crispy.

QUOTE(Shadow Kun @ Apr 4 2018, 09:55 PM)
Blegh blegh blegh. Then proceed with saying it's an Indonesian dish and namaste

But if the article is true, and Torode memang wasn't the one who complained, mana tau the whole Malaysia netizen go and whack him, maybe he also wanna whack back cos he kena salah tuduh?
TSdeodorant
post Apr 4 2018, 10:07 PM

Surfing LYN instead of Working.
*******
Senior Member
5,691 posts

Joined: Mar 2006


QUOTE(maxxxxx0123 @ Apr 4 2018, 10:05 PM)
i don't know why ppl go bash the other guy

i never do my own research properly so i just see what other people bash on FB, forums, etc.
all i know is they kuat bash Toretto.
in fact i didn't even know until reading this article that there was another judge named wallace.

This post has been edited by deodorant: Apr 4 2018, 10:08 PM
TSdeodorant
post Apr 4 2018, 10:33 PM

Surfing LYN instead of Working.
*******
Senior Member
5,691 posts

Joined: Mar 2006


QUOTE(reed90 @ Apr 4 2018, 10:25 PM)
TS go read the original twitter post la bodo
he provoke ppl 1st he got la

I memang never follow the saga properly.
But I thought the chain of events was,

Netizen flame toretto for the crispy jiken kau kau
then only toretto go and further provoke with the indon / namaste tweet
then netizen more angry

Not like that?
TSdeodorant
post Apr 4 2018, 11:07 PM

Surfing LYN instead of Working.
*******
Senior Member
5,691 posts

Joined: Mar 2006


QUOTE(KLboy92 @ Apr 4 2018, 10:51 PM)
I've been saying this for a while
Why did netizena rage at him though? All #triggered so terus blindly bash?
TSdeodorant
post Apr 5 2018, 09:42 AM

Surfing LYN instead of Working.
*******
Senior Member
5,691 posts

Joined: Mar 2006


QUOTE(Einjahr @ Apr 5 2018, 07:41 AM)
so where does namaste fit into this? is that even sounds remotely legit? 🙄

The Namaste part could have been intentional troll. Or it could have been Torreto memang bodoh ignorant. In either case, it seems like a knee jerk reaction to being falsely accused by like almost the entire army of MY/ID netizens, no?

ie:
Toretto: The chicken not cooked down enough, it should be more tender and falling off the bone.
Netizens: WOI TORETTO U BODOH PEK KAMBING, WHERE GOT SUCH THING AS CRISPY CHICKEN SKIN RENDANG?!?
Toretto: Dafug?!?
TSdeodorant
post Apr 5 2018, 11:04 AM

Surfing LYN instead of Working.
*******
Senior Member
5,691 posts

Joined: Mar 2006


QUOTE(Einjahr @ Apr 5 2018, 11:00 AM)
btw
it was william wallace, not corneto
Exactly my point. Touretto wasn't the one who said rendang should have crispy skin, but for some strange reason he was the one who got the flak for it. So couldn't his 'namaste' remark have been a knee-jerk reaction for getting falsely accused by everyone?
TSdeodorant
post Apr 5 2018, 01:50 PM

Surfing LYN instead of Working.
*******
Senior Member
5,691 posts

Joined: Mar 2006


QUOTE(MeToo @ Apr 5 2018, 12:38 PM)
My traditional rendang is bestest in the world everyone MUST love it.
Quoted for truth.

It doesn't matter that a judge in a UK cooking contest, judging dishes according to a UK palatte, doesnt like it. He is obviously wrong and biased and an idiot and doesn't know food at all, rendang chicken must have mushy skin, best in the world!!!

Bump Topic Add ReplyOptions New Topic
 

Change to:
| Lo-Fi Version
0.0156sec    0.32    6 queries    GZIP Disabled
Time is now: 29th March 2024 - 08:55 PM