'Did I eat a leaf?' Dota 2 esports personality chows down on nasi lemak like onigiri, shocks netizens

It's one thing to not know a foreign culture - but eating nasi lemak, banana leaf and all, is something else entirely.

That's exactly what Dota 2 personality Jake "SirActionSlacks" Kanner did, chowing down on nasi lemak as though it was an onigiri during a live podcast on Dec 17.

A snippet of this incident has gone viral on Twitter, earning over 489,000 views and 2,300 likes since Dec 27.

Jake was in Kuala Lumpur for the Dota 2 esports tournament ESL One Kuala Lumpur 2023, and also took part in the aptly named Monkey Business Show podcast after the tournament came to a close.

He sat around a table with former Bosnian esports player Admir "LizZard" Salkanovic, French-Lebanese player Sebastien "Ceb" Debs and Malaysian host and player Chai "Mushi" Yee Fung, where they tucked into their food.

'Did I eat a leaf?'

Admir and Sebastien scooped up their nasi lemak with their spoons - Jake, however, had a different approach.

After staring at his food and giving a short pause, Jake confidently crumpled up the dish, folding it into one hand and chomping down on it, banana leaf included.

Hearing the audience stir at his method of eating, Jake pulled a piece of banana leaf out of his mouth as he asked while chewing: "What? Did I eat a leaf?"

"I thought the leaves were real," he added as he pulled another piece of leaf out, causing his co-stars to burst out in laughter.

Unable to bear the sight, Yee Fung turned away laughing, before jokingly apologising: "I feel so bad I didn't explain the leaves to you!"

Jake then questioned why there was a leaf in the dish, apparently surprised.

In response, Sebastien said: "The leaf is there to support the food… you're not supposed to eat that, even I know this, dude."

How to eat Nasi Lemak?

It's not 2024 yet but it's already the funniest thing you will see next year 😭 pic.twitter.com/B82CZ5oZVs

— OG (@OGesports) December 27, 2023

On Twitter, netizens were similarly amused by Jake's antics, with many commenting how he had consumed his nasi lemak as though it were "sushi", "onigiri" or a "burrito".

"Bro thought it's California roll," another said.

A user also commented: "Sir, please enjoy the salad that comes with our nasi lemak."

The same clip has also gotten over 360,000 views on TikTok and over 10,000 likes on Instagram, where users were just as perplexed and humoured by Jake.

"Slacks took his time, watched Mushi eat [with cutlery] and thought: I think I have to grab it with my whole hand and eat it," said one Instagram user.

Jake and his co-stars also had a chance to try out durian on the podcast.

YOU KNOW WHAT TIME IT IS?

IT'S DURIAN TIMMMEEEEE 👿 pic.twitter.com/aoWIyUsbfm

— The OG Monkey Business Show (@OGshow) December 16, 2023

He gagged and coughed when he smelled and tasted the fruit, but that was all - thankfully, the fruit wasn't presented to him still in its shell.

ALSO READ: Say what? British tourist says he's struggling to understand Singaporean accent

khooyihang@asiaone.com