Cooking rice is one of the easiest types of food to cook. For Asians, cooking rice is a basic skill since rice is a staple for them. Hence, many freaked out when a BBC host cooks rice unwashed and rinsed it with water right after cooking.
Aside from being easy-to-cook, rice is also a flexible ingredient you can mix with other dishes. Combining rice with meat, vegetables, and stir-frying them on a pan is one way to cook and prepare it.
Check related article: Top 5 best rice substitutes
The BBC Food video
The BBC Food video that recently resurfaced on social media left many people- mostly Asians- shocked by how the rice was cooked. The video dates back to April 2019. Hersha Patel was the show host. Patel shows off her cooking skills in this video on how to make Asian stir-fried rice.
However, the public was shaken by Patel's method of cooking rice.
Normally, rice is cooked first by rinsing it thoroughly with water. The washing process will remove dirt in the grain and prevent it from being cooking with the rice.
However, in the video, Patel is seen putting water and dirty rice into a pan. She set the rice to boil and cook. Viewers of the show were surprised by her rice cooking method, and it was weirdly unusual.
When the rice was boiling, Patel turned down the heat. The rice looked like it still needs to absorb more water to cook it fully. However, the cooking show host instead drained the pot and strained the rice. She then washes the semi-cooked rice with water from the tap.
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Nigel Ng's reaction
The video escalated and spread like wildfire on social media. One of the people who got to watch it was Nigel Ng, a Malaysian stand-up comedian who resides in the UK. Ng made a reaction video regarding Patel's rice cooking method and felt "disgraced" while watching it.
As real-born Asian, Ng felt confused about Patel's cooking rice method even before she cooked it. He reacted like his Uncle Roger while watching the video. Ng also said Patel's first step in her method was entirely wrong. He then predicted that the video would turn out bad.
When Patel ran water through her semi-cooked rice, Ng made fun of it and said she is cooking her rice like pasta. Ng shared his frustration and wondered why the BBC hostess was running water through it. He also wondered how Pastel became a host on BBC Food.
Ng was not the only one who got frustrated by Patel's way of cooking. A lot of people from across the world commented on the video and agreed her way was wrong. Most of them are unimpressed with her method of cooking rice.
The public's reaction
One person said he could not even imagine a college student cooking rice like Patel. He emphasized he felt confused and embarrassed by the video, knowing Patel is a professional chef.
Another one commented the video was a blasphemy. Someone also said it should not be considered as Asian fried rice. Almost everyone who watched the video cringed throughout it.
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