Viral: Someone did a bubble tea rice experiment, to the delight (and distress) of Singaporeans online

Photo: All Singapore Stuff/Facebook
Photo: All Singapore Stuff/Facebook

We’ve seen culinary monstrosities of this kind go viral before. We remember when our neighbors up north tried to make Oreo rice “a thing.” We remember that fishy Mohinga martini y’all made, Myanmar.

So, we’ll admit that it was with hardened hearts and a few eye-rolls that we reacted to this latest food Frankenstein: bubble tea cooked with rice grains — boba pearls and all — as it started showing up across our social media feeds today.

Internet users in Singapore quickly shared the images across local Facebook groups, with posts to pages like Legit Singapore and All Singapore Stuff garnering over 244 comments and 789 shares, and 207 comments and 337 shares, respectively, as of the time of this article’s publication.

Singaporeans, however, were largely split on the concept.

Many responded with memes of pop culture icons looking disgusted. Some said they would be giving the idea a go. Others were concerned with the sugar content of this dish (sigh — there’s always that guy).

Screengrab: Legit Singapore/FB
Screengrab: Legit Singapore/FB
Screengrab: Legit Singapore/FB
Screengrab: Legit Singapore/FB
Screengrab: All Singapore Stuff/Facebook
Screengrab: All Singapore Stuff/Facebook

The idea of cooking rice along with the milk tea-and-pearls concoction was first conceived by a Japanese man surnamed Sato, for the Japanese news and lifestyle site Soranews24.

In Japan, there is a popular dish called ochazuke, which is rice with green tea — so apparently, Sato was inspired to create something similar, but with tapioca bubble milk tea instead.

To create the bubble tea rice, Sato placed a cup of uncooked rice and a medium-sized cup of bubble milk tea into a rice cooker. He then closed the lid and left the rice to cook for 15 minutes. Such an easy recipe for Singaporean internet fame success. 






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