How an outrage over crispy chicken united Indonesia and Malaysia

As food divides, so does it unite. 

In the quarter-finals of MasterChef UK this year, a Malaysian-born contestant Zaleha Kadir Olpin prepared chicken rendang, which got her eliminated by judge Gregg Wallace on the basis of it being “not crispy enough”. Rendang is an “unctuous, slow-cooked and stewed dish of meat with coconut and spices, easily described as many things — rich, spicy, melt-in-the-mouth”, but certainly not crispy. What was most interesting was how despite having a notable history of tension around “issues of territorial disputes, colonialism and nationalism” as well as clashes over claiming the provenance of the dish, Indonesians and Malaysians took up arms against the UK judge, hashtagging (#CrispyRendang and #Rendangate) their way through social media. In fact, while another judge on the show John Torode attempted to stoke nationalistic flames by declaring that “Maybe rendang was from Indonesia”, social media users were firm in their camaraderie, as captured by one user “Trying to make Malaysians and Indonesians fight over the rendang? No, we will unite instead.”

Source: 

http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20180610-how-an-outrage-over-crispy-chicken-united-south-east-asia