In Singapore, curry comes in many variations. But one thing that remains constant is the rich flavours, colours, and spices that are essential to the dish.
Recently, a New York Times (NYT) cooking segment featuring “Singapore Chicken Curry” garnered flak from Singaporeans, perhaps due to its failure to fulfil the above criteria.
Many pointed out that the dish looked murky and watered down — an undesirable combination that looked terribly unappetising.
On Wednesday (2 Feb), NYT Cooking uploaded a cooking segment featuring a dish called “Singapore Chicken Curry”.
Cooked by Clarissa Wei, a Taipei-based freelance journalist, the dish was described as a combination of “acidity, spice, and savouriness”.
Wei starts off by marinating the chicken with lime juice as well as spices like pepper and salt.
After leaving the protein in the fridge for 40 minutes, she sears the chicken in a layer of ghee.
She then fries other ingredients like onion, garlic, and ginger in the same butter before adding cinnamon, star anise, and pandan leaves.
Wei proceeds by adding the seared chicken and chicken broth into the mix and letting it sit.
She finishes the dish by drizzling coconut milk over the concoction.
As professional as the video looked, the dish, which was diluted and of a strange brown colour, looked anything but similar to curry that Singaporeans are familiar with.
In fact, Singaporeans were disapproving of the video and expressed their disappointment on numerous social media platforms.
This Instagram user said the Internet ought to alert gourmet watchdog Uncle Roger to the dish.
This Reddit user highlighted that rempah – an essential element in curry – was missing entirely from the video.
The same netizen also pointed out that the Singaporean Chicken Curry recipe article on NYT Cooking’s website looked far more appetising than the dish in the video.
Interestingly, the recipe was adapted by Clarissa Wei herself, which only puts into question the huge contrast in appearance.
Source
Singaporean or not, it’s safe to say that the curry featured in the video is unlikely to make anyone drool.
What perhaps is also interesting about this saga is the fact that the dishes in the video and that in the recipe looked worlds apart.
What exactly went wrong in the process? We guess only folks from NYT Cooking would know.
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Featured image adapted from New York Times Cooking on Instagram.
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