There was less “Haiyaa!” and more making nice over rice when Uncle Roger, aka Malaysian comedian Nigel Ng, met up with Hersha Patel, the chef he had roasted for washing cooked rice in a colander among other culinary offenses.
The pair, who announced a video collab two weeks ago after Patel became a kitchen villain, met up at “Auntie Hersha’s” home in London, where she showed 29-year-old Ng how she really cooks rice in a video that debuted last night.
In Patel’s BBC Food segment that Ng savaged as the rice-obsessed Chinese caricature that is Uncle Roger, Patel was seen adding steps to prepare rice such as not cleaning it, draining it after cooking with a colander, and then washing it with water after it had been cooked. This horrified many viewers, including Ng himself.
Thankfully, there is none of this in the new video, Uncle Roger Meet Egg Fried Rice Lady (@Hersha Patel), released at 10pm last night Malaysian time. This time, Patel can be seen washing basmati rice before cooking it in a pot and letting it steam.
She achieves this while amicably indulging a slew of milder criticisms from Ng as ‘Uncle Roger,’ one of which he could be heard saying, “Uncle Roger still thinks Aunty Hersha needs to buy a rice cooker. Make life simple.”
While basmati rice can be prepared in a rice cooker, it is traditionally cooked in a pot on a stovetop over high heat.
When the rice had finished cooking, Ng glances over at the pot of fluffy basmati rice and says, “The rice looks OK. No more sad, gloopy rice.”
Though Ng still ribs Patel for the contents of her kitchen, love of colanders and use of “wang” as a verb, the overall comedic effect doesn’t quite reach full boil. Though fun to see the pair together, its purpose seems to rehabilitate Patel’s image with the 10 million people who have watched Ng’s original video posted last month.
In the comments, many viewers praised Patel for being a “good sport,” despite having been trolled by thousands as a result of Ng’s viral Uncle Roger DISGUSTED by this Egg Fried Rice video.
“Aunty Hersha (deserves) big points for being a good sport about all of this,” said YouTube user A. Vincent Herrick.
“I hope Hersha’s career is doing okay. She seems like a very sweet person. Funny video!” another user, Laura Scoggins, chimed in.
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