Malaysians React To 'People Vs Food' YouTube Video Grouping Nasi Lemak As Indonesian Food
Spoiler alert: They weren't happy about it.
By Wayne Garreth — 18 Jul 2023, 11:51 AM
While it may hardly come as a surprise, Malaysians can often be protective over some of our homegrown creations.
And among the many beloved dishes made in our country comes the king of all food items, nasi lemak.
A feel-good 'pick me up' you can have at any hour of the day, it's no surprise that many consider this plate of food our national dish.
However, a recent debate over its feature on a well-known YouTube channel has caused an uproar over its apparent place of origin.
US-based YouTube channel, People Vs Food, is an established subsidiary channel by media franchise, React Media. Through the channel, creators often have their guests partake in taste tests, guess the name of food items, and even tempt people to not try certain delectable dishes to achieve prizes, among other things.
In a recent video that was published on the channel, an episode of 'People Vs Food' featured the acclaimed nasi lemak — though not in a fashion that was anticipated.
Titled "Americans Try Indonesian Food For The First Time!", the channel proceeded to curate a video of their guests trying a variety of Indonesian food, including nasi lemak
Starting off strong, the channel began by having their reactors try Indonesian nasi goreng, rendang, gado-gado, bakso, and mie tek tek.
However, things took a bit of a turn when they introduced nasi lemak as one of the Indonesian dishes.
The reactors were shown a TikTok of nasi lemak condiments being packed with rice, to which they had a positive response.
After watching the clip, each talent was presented with their own serving of nasi lemak to taste, with all of them using chopsticks to try it.
All of the reactors complimented the dish, saying many of the condiments paired well together, before carrying on with their final item, murtabak manis, subsequently concluding the video after that.
Although the video as a whole was received positively, reaching over two million views at the time of writing, Malaysians and Indonesians alike voiced how nasi lemak isn't an Indonesian dish
Instead, the vast majority of commenters claimed that nasi lemak is a Malaysian dish.
Providing some insight into their culture and cuisine, many Indonesians remarked that the dish 'People Vs Food' probably intended to discuss was nasi uduk, an Indonesian style of steamed rice cooked in coconut milk.
"There's a resemblance, yes, both of them use rice cooked with coconut milk, but the other toppings are different," wrote one user when comparing the two dishes.
Another user also went on to say that the TikTok which was shown to the reactors displayed the preparation of nasi uduk, not nasi lemak.
Nevertheless, there were a couple of users who defended the creators of the video, saying that nasi lemak is also made in Indonesia, though different parts may use different names for the food item, accounting for the nasi uduk dish too.
"In Indonesia, we call it nasi uduk. Yes, it is the same dish as nasi lemak, but the name nasi lemak is usually used in Malaysia and Singapore," penned one Indonesian user.
Others were also astonished by how the reactors were made to try each food item using chopsticks instead of flatware
Here's hoping that if 'People Vs Food' does a Malaysian-themed video, nasi lemak will be featured too.
Watch the full YouTube video below:
