Malaysian stand-up comedian Nigel Ng irked a lot of people in Laos recently after he criticized the country’s cuisine in a video dressed as his famous character Uncle Roger. This week, after a wave of uproar, he posted a video accepting the challenge to try out authentic Lao food and possibly change his mind about it.
The controversy first started when Nigel Ng, who is better known by his online persona Uncle Roger (a stereotypical middle-aged Asian man reviewing Asian food recipes while speaking with an exaggerated Cantonese-like accent) stated that he disliked Lao food.
In a video titled Uncle Roger Make Adobo (8M SUBSCRIBER SPECIAL), he said, “Not all Southeast Asian countries [have] got good food, you don’t want food from Laos, Cambodia,” followed by, “Lao food [is] like [a] shit version of Thai food.”
This sparked outrage among Lao people across the world, who banded together to call out his comments as “uneducated”, “offensive”, and “ignorant.”
However, this controversial comment has now come to light as a lead-up to an entire video where a Lao chef showcases the country’s cuisine to Uncle Roger and his impressive 8.24 million YouTube subscribers.
Following the outrage, American-Lao chef Ae Southammavong, who participated in Gordon Ramsey’s “Next Level Chef” cooking show, invited Uncle Roger to experience actual Lao food cooked by her.
In the Youtube video titled, “Uncle Roger CANCELED BY ANOTHER COUNTRY,” Ae and Uncle Roger cook Tam Mak Houng (Papaya Salad), Sticky Rice, and Nam Khao (Crispy Rice Salad) while Ae delves a bit into history, explaining why Lao and Thai Isan food is considered to be similar.
After tasting Ae’s authentic Lao papaya salad, Uncle Roger commented, “[it’s] very spicy, but the flavor amazing, Lao papaya salad [has] got such [a] different flavor from Thai papaya salad, but why so few Lao restaurant[s] in the world.”
Ending the video, Uncle Roger added in his typical unfazed sense of humor, “Lao food [is] not bad! Now [does] anyone want to make Cambodian food for Uncle Roger?”
The video has received 1.3 million views on YouTube within a day with the comic’s impressed viewers lauding him for taking criticism in his stride and shedding more light on lesser-known Asian cuisines and cultures through his own eccentric ways.
