As geographical neighbours, Malaysia and Singapore share a lot in common when it comes to the languages spoken and culture.
However, the one thing that will forever be a hot debate topic between the two would be whose food is better and where it originally came from.
A Malaysian contestant recently claimed in a Taiwanese reality show that several iconic Malaysian dishes such as bak kut teh and chicken rice were ‘stolen’ by Singapore, which unsurprisingly ruffled some feathers.
Bak Kut Teh & chicken rice were ‘stolen’ by S’pore?
During one of the episodes of 同学来了, contestants from Malaysia and Singapore were invited to share their own personal experiences of living in their respective countries.
However, things became slightly tense when one of the Malaysian contestants named Zu Xiong (祖雄), who’s a well-known influencer, claimed that Singapore had “stolen” some of his home country’s most popular dishes.
All of the food that you know in Singapore were all stolen from Malaysia!
To back his claim, Zu Xiong cited bak kut teh, Hainan chicken rice, char koay teow, and Nyonya kuih as examples, adding that these existed in Malaysia before Singapore broke away and became an independent country.
As expected, his statement were vehemently opposed by one Singaporean contestant, who replied by saying that it was merely a “cultural exchange” and that Singapore was helping Malaysia “promote” the dishes.
Another Singaporean contestant followed up by saying that Malaysia had done a poor job in promoting its local dishes, thus needing Singapore to aid it in doing so.
Called SG’s tourist attractions ‘man-made’
Aside from dissing Singapore’s alleged lack of culinary authenticity, Zu Xiong also poked fun at its tourist attractions, where he called it “man-made”.
Among some of the attractions on his list included the Rain Vortex in Jewel Changi Airport, Siloso Beach, Wave House Sentosa, and Gardens by the Bay. At one point, he even pointed at the Singaporean contestants and called them “man-made people”.
He then advised those who were planning to visit Singapore not to spend more than 3 days there as there wasn’t much to see and they would get bored easily.
‘Why so salty?’
Naturally, Zu Xiong’s remarks didn’t go down well with Singaporean netizens, who said he was the embodiment of Malaysians’ low self-esteem and being “sour grapes”.
‘Wow the inferiority complex is real. Glad we live rent free in their heads. Who’s the one coming in like economic refugees for 1:3 (exchange rate)?’
‘One SGD is already RM3.50. Yet they still want to fight with Singapore over the origin of food.’
Watch the episode here:
What do you think of Zu Xiong’s claim? Let us know in the comments!
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