NYT Cooking section recipe for disaster: ‘S’porean Chicken Curry’ slammed online

Singapore – The recipe given for “Singaporean Chicken Curry” in the cooking section of  The New York Times‘ has drawn anything but glowing reviews online from Singaporeans and others.

Get the picture?  NYT thought it did – but  it  really didn’t.

The photo of the supposed “Singaporean Chicken Curry” on the front page of  the NYT’s Cooking section  did look promising. The Instagram-worthy image seemed legit and visually tasty enough to make viewers want to try it out.

Then, NYT Cooking also posted a short clip on its Instagram page. “What we’re making for Lunar New Year: @dearclarissa’s Singaporean Chicken Curry!” the caption reads.

The video, by a freelance writer from Taipei, Clarissa Wei, offers a now-to tutorial but the end result looks worlds apart from that promising cover photo.

According to Coconuts, the recipe Ms Wei used was taken from sales professional Shila Das. She has since clarified that it was her father’s recipe for chicken curry that she sent Ms Wei, but she was unsure what happened with the finished product.

Misinterpretation or not, NYT Cooking’s published version did not sit well with a fair number of netizens.

“Delete this right now,” wrote one irate Instagram user.

“As a Singaporean, I’m disappointed. We need to call upon Uncle Roger for this,” said another user, referring to Malaysian Chinese comedian Nigel Ng , who is known for critiquing recipes.

Another netizen’s comment was more graphic and upfront: “Singaporean here, this looks like toilet water. Curry doesn’t look like this at all in ANY part of the world LOOOOL.”

The video also sparked reactions in short video creation app TikTok, with users commenting on the recipe.

“I’m Indian; if I show this to my mother, immediately heart attack,” said TikTok user @boblet21.

Satirist, writer and blogfather of Singapore, Kim Huat, also known as mrbrown, uploaded his own video on Friday (Feb 4), asking NYT why their Singapore curry “look like this one ah”.

He noted that he has eaten many types of curry, the orange and yellow ones, but never the “brown one”, which looked like longkang chui or drain water.

He also said the recipe would cause dead ancestors to rise from their graves and whack living family members with slippers as a warning never to try said recipe.

@mrbrownlah

Kim Huat has a few things to say about the @nytcooking “Singapore” Chicken Curry. #sgtiktok #tiktoksg #fyp

♬ original sound – mrbrown

This isn’t  the first time that the label “Singapore” or “Singaporean” has been hijacked to be applied to something that simply has never existed in the country of its supposed origin. Remember the infamous “Singapore noodles”?

So, dear NYT, know that Singapore has many kinds of chicken curries. Just remember that there’s no such dish as “Singaporean Chicken Curry”./TISG

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