Placeholder Image

Subtitles section Play video

  • How do you cook rice?

  • Well, according to one comedian, the BBC needs a few lessons.

  • A YouTube video by stand-up comedian Nigel Ng went viral in just a few hours earlier this month.

  • In the clip Nigel--or rather, his alter ego, Uncle Roger, a middle-aged Chinese man--reacts to a cooking video on BBC food where present Hersha Patel showed how to cook egg fried rice.

  • -Drain it. -Drain... what she doing? Drained the rice?

  • Oh my God, you're killing me woman!

  • Drained the ... she ... she draining rice with colander!

  • How can you drain rise with colander?

  • This is not pasta.

  • I never seen anyone drain rice.

  • Get a nice rice cooker, don't mess with sauce pan like this lady here.

  • Oh, don't mess with colander.

  • Well, Uncle Roger's reaction got a collective nod from people across East Asia.

  • But perhaps the real question is not about cooking rice, but cultural differences.

  • Well, I'm happy to say I'm joined now by both Nigel and BBC Food Presenter Hersha Patel who are both in London.

  • Thank you both for joining us.

  • Nigel or Uncle Roger, I'm not sure what you'd like me to call you.

  • I'll begin with you because clearly you were outraged by what Hersha was doing.

  • Yes, well, thanks for playing that clip, I was giggling, chuckling to it again.

  • I play this character called Uncle Roger was a middle-aged Asian uncle.

  • We call everybody by uncles, aunties back in Asia, right?

  • And it's a character that's an over the top character.

  • So by a rice video, he just get so mad and so angry.

  • And that's where the humor comes from.

  • And I'm just super surprised and super grateful that people seemed to enjoy it.

  • It was really good fun to watch.

  • And it was about a seven-and-a-half minute YouTube video, and I watched it a couple of times.

  • Because just throughout everything she was doing, you were you were outraged by.

  • Do you think that perhaps you were being a little bit mean as well though?

  • Yeah, in hindsight, I was trying my best to just critique the rice preparation technique and not the person, not Hersha herself.

  • And in hindsight, yes, maybe a little bit mean.

  • But again, that's ... that's just a character.

  • I don't actually feel that way towards Hersha, or her rice cooking techniques.

  • You know, I don't do that technique myself.

  • But, you know, everybody cooks rice differently, right?

  • - So... - Indeed.

  • And I suppose we talked a little bit there about the cultural differences of making rice, Hersha, I'll bring you in.

  • Because you know, once he put that video out there, there was a bit of backlash.

  • Just tell me about your reaction.

  • What happened?

  • Well, I had a few comments on my Instagram, it's very slow.

  • People saying: "you don't know how to get rice" and I kind of ignored at first, cause I didn't understand what was going on on.

  • Then I thought I should look at this video.

  • And I watched the video from Nigel and actually, it was really funny.

  • So again, I thought, you know, people are obviously commenting because this video is getting really popular.

  • But then I started to get quite a bit of trolling.

  • And I personally thought the video was very funny, and I think Nigel is very funny.

  • But then, you know, it sort of turned on its head when it started going viral.

  • And people were sort of attacking me for not being able to cook rice properly.

  • And that's when it became a bit of... uh... you know, I guess it's a cultural issue.

  • Ah, rice ... sort of cultural issue.

  • But I suppose you know, just to defend yourself.

  • Do you want to tell us where you learned how to cook rice?

  • Well, that particular recipe I was presenting for the BBC, so it was their recipe, and so I cooked.

  • I won't personally cooked rice in that way.

  • But I understood, I know that there are lots of ways to cook rice.

  • And I know that that is one way that people do cook rice.

  • And I've had people personal messaging me, saying that that's actually how they cook rice.

  • I personally cook it the way my mother told me, basmati rice.

  • You can see that on my Youtube page, Hersha Patel.

  • And so the method that I, you know, was asked to present, I, you know, I presented it, because I took it as a way of cooking rice.

  • Not necessarily my way, but it was the BBC's recipe, and I, you know ...

  • We will take the responsibility for that, Hersha, and you're a professional, so you just keep followed that recipe

  • Nigel, since this video, and since everything that's happened, you two have actually met up?

  • - Yeah. -Yep, we have.

  • So what did the plan ... sorry, go ahead, Hersha.

  • Oh, I just gonna say, you know, I could see that there's a lot of trolling.

  • And I just thought, you know what?

  • I'm not gonna, you know, engage in bullying, but I'm going to get in touch, reach out to Nigel.

  • Sent a message said I thought you are, you know, brilliant, really funny, lets meet up on and move forwards with this.

  • Let's see this is something that's positive rather than, you know, a cultural war or ...

  • Because the Internet can be very volatile.

  • And I wanted to make this a positive thing.

  • Very much so.

  • And Nigel, I suppose the one thing that this does show is that different parts of the world cook rice very differently.

  • It's just one of those universal things.

  • Yeah, yes, yes, that ... that's something I've learned.

  • So what are the plans going forward for you two?

  • We're gonna collaborate.

  • Gonna make a collab video of me and her shot together, probably cooking something.

  • We're still figuring out the exact content of the video.

  • But when we met up, we posted on Instagram story.

  • And I'm gonna make another post later on my Instagram feed saying that we're gonna do a collaboration.

  • And the responses has been pretty, pretty positive.

  • So I'm happy that we're getting to work together on this.

  • - Yeah, I think... - Oh sorry, go ahead.

  • So the idea is that we, you know, we both have a sense of humor.

  • We understand, like you said, there are lots of different ways to cook things.

  • We just want to keep this feeling of having a sense of human being positive and having some fun.

  • Well, I wish you both good luck, and we look forward to seeing the next rice video.

  • Hersha and Nigel, thank you so much.

  • -Thanks a lot. -Thank you.

How do you cook rice?

Subtitles and vocabulary

Click the word to look it up Click the word to find further inforamtion about it