An acquired taste? Malaysians love theirrendang, a traditional dish made with chicken or beef that is slow cooked with Asianherbsand coconut milk. - Reuters
IT was perhaps inevitable for a MasterChef UK judge to downgrade a Malaysian contestant for serving chicken rendang that “wasn’t crispy.”
It was not only Gregg Wallace’s opinion that chicken rendang should be crispy, it was a criterion that disqualified Zaleha Kadir Olpin on flawed premises, if not false
pretences.
And it was not only Wallace,since fellow judge John Torode and BBC’s MasterChef UK stood by him.
On one side was Malaysia or things Malaysian, long a melting pot of many cultures and cuisines as well as a historical meeting point of intercontinental traders.
For laksa alone there are at least 22 known varieties and variants.
On the other side was a British programme with British judges, sitting in judgement of literally an entire world of cuisines.
Britain has long been perceived as an insular nation of unadventurous diners, far surpassed by continental France in the cuisines stakes.
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