‘Delete this right now’: New York Times’ Singaporean Chicken Curry dish savaged online

February 3, 2022

A video of “Singaporean chicken curry” created from a recipe published by New York Times Cooking has stirred online fervor, as the resulting curry’s appearance drew comparisons to “drainage water.”

The video, uploaded to New York Times Cooking’s Instagram on Tuesday, shows Taipei-based freelance journalist Clarissa Wei preparing one of the publication’s recipes for Singaporean Chicken Curry.

People on the internet immediately criticized the curry’s appearance, which did not match the bright and thick curry promised by the recipe’s accompanying pictures. A description of the original recipe assured: “Any leftovers taste better the next day.”

“The chicken is marinated in lime juice and then gently simmered in a spicy and earthy sauce anchored by coconut milk,” the description reads, also qualifying that there is no one recipe for curry in Singapore, since “every family in Singapore has its own spice mix depending on heritage.”

“This feels like an act of war,” wrote one person.

Some questioned why the video was still up.

Other commentators threatened to “call Uncle Roger,” a character played by Malaysian British comedian Nigel Ng, who is famous for mocking Asian recipes gone wrong.

A video making fun of the dish posted to TikTok by user @boblet21, who said his Indian mother would find the dish a “travesty,” has garnered over 113,000 views, as of this writing. “What did you even add to the pot to make it this mucous-y color?” he asks in the video.

The original author of the recipe, Shila Das, who is Singaporean of Indian and Vietnamese descent, commented to Coconuts that she was “unsure” what had happened to make the result of the recipe, which was her father’s, look different than the bright orange-red dish depicted in the recipe photo printed by the New York Times.

Featured Image via @NYTCooking

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