BBC Food's fried rice recipe horrifies Asian netizens when cook washes undercooked rice under tap

As Asians, the know-how to cook rice should come as naturally to us as, say, breathing. 

Thus why we would get pretty fired up when watching someone managing to mess up such a simple, elementary process. 

An injustice to the Asian staple has been a talking point on social media over the past few days, in which a BBC Food video on how to cook fried rice showcased a pretty bizarre method of cooking rice. 

In a video hosted by British cook and presenter Hersha Patel, her unorthodox technique involved tossing raw rice grains and water straight into a pot, leaving it to boil, stop cooking it halfway, using a strainer to drain excess water, before finally rinsing the semi-cooked rice under tap water. 

Safe to say, our mums, grandmothers and ancestral matriarchs would probably like to have a word with Patel. 

[embed]https://www.facebook.com/bbcfood/videos/392920944628432/[/embed]

It's even more bewildering when you realise that BBC actually published a video on the correct procedure — rinse the raw rice to get rid of excess starch, toss it into a pot with water, put it to boil with the lid on, and just leave it alone until all the water has been absorbed. 

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUgOz5emQ94[/embed]

Patel’s crime against rice, however, has been such a huge controversy that the BBC Food video resurfaced recently despite it being published in April 2019.

It's perhaps due to a video by UK-based Malaysian standup comedian Nigel Ng, who put on a parodic persona called Uncle Roger and reacted to Hersha’s cooking process. 

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53me-ICi_f8&feature=youtu.be[/embed]

Funnily enough, the same Uncle Roger had also put out a video on how to cook rice properly — by using a rice cooker. 

[embed]https://www.facebook.com/nigelngcomedy/videos/905420729936847/[/embed]

Comments left behind on the original BBC Food video show that Ng is not the only one horrified by the rice-cooking guide made by the professional cook. 

ilyas@asiaone.com