Mouthing Off | Singaporeans and Malaysians can never find food like at home when they’re overseas, they complain. It’s hard to take them seriously
- Expats can find pretty good versions of their country’s cuisine in most of the world’s major cities – it may not be the best, but we try not to moan about it
- So why are Singaporeans and Malaysians so vocal about the deficiencies of restaurants’ laksa, nasi lemak, beef rendang and bak kut teh?
First things first: I want to tell my Singaporean and Malaysian friends that I love them. I truly do. However, you guys are also the worst when it comes to complaining.
It’s remarkable how every one of them likes to whine and grumble about not being able to find the foods they miss from their hometown. Or rather, they can find the dishes in Hong Kong, but they’re not satisfied with the laksa, char kway teow, bak kut teh, nasi lemak, roti canai or beef rendang available. Even when the food is actually good, they’ll say it pales compared to Penang, Kuala Lumpur, Ipoh, Johor or wherever they are from.
At every opportunity they like to remind us how all the Malaysian and Singaporean restaurants in Hong Kong suck. Even if a shop is faithful with ingredients and recipes, it still can’t match even the lowly, greasy hawker fare they remember from their old neighbourhood.
Fine, we get it. Hong Kong is just not as good. We can’t replicate your comfort dishes no matter how hard we try. Even when restaurants recruit chefs from your clan village to come and cook, our kitchens somehow mess them up so the spices don’t taste the same.
There was a time when the French, Italians and colonial Brits complained like that. But most have come to terms with the reality of living in Asia. Plus, it’s no longer politically correct for them to disparage the local culture. Most long-term Brits no longer care about Yorkshire pudding. The Italians have accepted our tuna fish and Thousand Island dressing pizza. Even the French stopped protesting about the quality of croissants.
Our Southeast Asian cousins, however, won’t stop moaning about how we lack any outlets with food that measures up to their standard. If a non-Asian expatriate expressed such sentiment, people would be up in arms. Hyper-patriots might retort, “Well, go back to where you came from if you’re not happy here!”