U.S. media company says Nasi Goreng resembles fried rice, Southeast Asians perturbed

Careful what you say.

Syahindah Ishak | January 02, 2020, 03:57 PM

Singaporeans, Malaysians and Indonesians have had constant arguments over Nasi Goreng.

Like this:

But there's one thing the three countries can agree on: Nasi Goreng is, in fact, fried rice.

Nasi Goreng "resembles" fried rice

On Dec. 30, American media publication Food Insider posted a video of Indonesian rapper Rich Brian cooking Nasi Goreng on their Twitter page.

In the video, Food Insider also educated its viewers on the ingredients and significance of the dish.

As of the time of writing, the tweet had over 1,600 retweets and 3,900 likes.

However, it wasn't the video that garnered a lot of attention.

In its tweet caption, Food Insider wrote:

"Resembling fried rice, nasi goreng is made with a thick, sweet Indonesian soy sauce called kecap."

Southeast Asians upset

Many were quick to spot the main problem of the caption— fried rice doesn't just resemble Nasi Goreng, it is Nasi Goreng.

One tweet with a very simple message went rather viral, garnering over 7,000 shares in less than a week.

https://twitter.com/twtanas/status/1211492446724657152

Others agreed.

Kecap is soy sauce

Others also pointed out that Kecap literally translates to soy sauce, unlike the "sweet Indonesian soy sauce" that they were referring to.

A few urged Food Insider to hire a Southeast Asian in their team.

So in a nutshell:

Ah, well.

Top photos via Food Insider/Twitter.