By now I think we all know how to trigger a random Malaysian.
Just add any country in front of some food item, post it on social media and wait for some triggered Malaysian to respond.
(Of course, this doesn’t apply to all Malaysians.)
If you’re particularly evil or just want to watch the world burn, I think you can start a riot just by going to an online word generator to churn out random posts.
But anyway, most people just want to post stuff for their peeps to see.
Y’know, just a chill conversation.
Which is what S’porean comedian Hirzi Zulkifie did. Just posting a picture with the caption “Teaching all of you how to eat Thai Tropical fruits the right way in my latest post.”
Which Triggered A Malaysian
The post was obviously meant to be joke, since that was clearly the wrong way to eat the fruit.
Anyway, that didn’t stop one person from jumping upon this hate train to send a message.
In case you can’t see, the message says “Who say that is Thai tropical fruit???? Hmmmm, this is fruit appropriation cuz this is rambutan and is from Malaysia.”
In response, Hirzi tweeted “Malaysian and their food are never done, please.”
Malaysians and their food tak habis habis please 😭😭😭. pic.twitter.com/NFybwdkTzD
— HirziOfficial (@HIRZIofficial) September 16, 2019
Ah Hock loved Michelle and asked her, ‘Ai stead mai?’ in the 90s. Today, he tried again but would it work? Prepare some tissue paper and watch their love story here:
And also (translation by WorldOfBuzz):
“OMG Malaysians. Aren’t rambutans Allah’s fruits? Rambutans don’t have passports. Just because of a fruit, don’t cause a fight among Nusantara. What if the fruit grows in Thailand, don’t tell me you’re gonna call the immigration department and report an illegal immigrant.”
Which you can’t say Hirzi doesn’t make sense. After all, food isn’t static. Cultivars are introduced to different places all throughout history.
Saying that strawberries first originated from France, therefore all the varieties of strawberry in Japan belong to France doesn’t quite make… sense.
Of course, it is entirely possible that the message was a joke. “Fruit appropriation” sounds ridiculous as it is.
But leaving this pointless argument, I’ve decided to enter the court of truth myself.
So, Where Exactly Did Rambutan Come From?
Naturally, my first instinct as a certified food historian is to check the Food Timeline, which you can probably tell by jumping straight into the site that it is the most comprehensive site for food history information.
But to my disappointment, there aren’t any mentions of rambutan in that entire site.
It would seem like most sources seem to agree that the fruit is native to Malaysia, though it is now cultivated throughout Southeast Asia.
Perhaps this isn’t an answer for a certain Goody Feed writer to answer, so I guess let me end with saying this:
If rambutans are Malaysian, then I guess I’d have to start pledging my allegiance to China.
Oh, wait, I think I know where rambutan comes from liao.
According to Netflix, it’s from an alien planet.
Problem solved.
