'Crispy Rendang' Mess Shows Indonesians and Malaysians That Differences are Only Skin-Deep

Rendang is a touchy subject among Indonesians and Malaysians. Both countries have been fighting for the ownership of the spicy meat dish—which CNN wrote as one of the world's most delicious food—for years. But people are setting aside their ego over rendang and shifting their attention on a new common enemy: John Torode and Gregg Wallace, the judges of MasterChef UK who eliminated a contestant for cooking a chicken rendang dish that's not crispy.

“I like the rendang flavor, there's a coconut sweetness," Wallace told Malaysian-born Zaleha Kadir Olpin in the show. "However, the chicken skin isn't crispy. It can't be eaten and all the sauce is on the skin so I can't eat it.”

But wait… EVERYONE in Indonesia and Malaysia thought, rendang isn't supposed to be crispy.

Annoyed by the judges’ comments, Indonesians and Malaysians took to Twitter to slam the judges for whitesplaining rendang. Torode, who told Zaleha that her dish was a "mistake," responded in a tweet that has since been deleted:

Bad move. Torode’s tweet only added fuel to the fire, and many people called him out for pitting Indonesians against Malaysians over the dish. Plus, nobody in either country says "namaste." So what did he say namaste for? Is it for all the white yoga vacationers in Ubud?

The outrage over the crispy rendang incident this week—and the abundance of memes that came out of it—is proof that the very dish that can cause two countries to hate each other can also unite them in hatred of a third. But when we dig deeper, rendang has always been a common denominator among different cultures in Southeast Asia, according to culinary historian Fadly Rahman. It’s a waste of time to debate the origin of rendang, he says, because Rendang is a very cosmopolitan dish.

“Rendang has different taste in the Malay world, either in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, or Brunei," he tells VICE. "It does have the same characteristics, but that's due to the Minang [the ethnic group indigenous to Indonesia's West Sumatra] diaspora."

What's happening here, Fadly says, is simply a clashing views on what rendang actually is. Torode and Wallace simply see rendang from in a gastronomy context that has its own standards, while Malays see rendang from its authenticity. But Fadly believes that every Malay, who brings rendang everywhere they go, will think of rendang the way they know it.

Rendang is believed to be originated in the 16th century in West Sumatra, says Ari Parikesit, a culinary expert. Historically, the Minang people—the ones who invented the dish—have settled outside of West Sumatra, meaning that rendang first cooked outside Sumatra centuries ago. That's why there are two types of rendang, wet and dry, Ari says. People usually bring dried rendang when they travel to faraway places because it keeps better then the wet kind. But, seriously, whatever the style, rendang has never been crispy.

The crispy rendang controversy might have singlehandedly ended the beef between Indonesia and Malaysia over this dish, but it's probably not going to mend all the bad blood out there. I mean, tensions between the two nations have been around since the early 1960s, when Indonesian founding father Sukarno opposed the very creation of a country called Malaysia.

Since then, the two countries have repeatedly traded barbs over everything from the origins of traditional music and batik, the ownership of islands, and an accidental inversion of the Indonesian flag on the 2017 SEA Games official pamphlet—a pamphlet made in Malaysia.

But Malays in both Indonesia and Malaysia naturally have a lot in common, so it doesn't make sense to be fighting for ownership over their shared culture, Fadly says.

“Minang people and Malaysians are all Malays," he says. "What happened after the emergence of the post-independence nation-state concept was that people started saying, 'I am Malay Indonesian and you're Malaysian Malay.' They are not aware that this concept divided them. After independence, I don’t think Indonesians and Malaysians have ever tried to make peace."

Maybe MasterChef UK judges' ignorant comments were just what Indonesia and Malaysia needed to better neighbors.

“In many traditions, we can solve conflicts between neighbors or traditions through feasts," says Rahung Nasution, a culinary expert. "Politics separate people. In politics, the most dangerous conflict can be driven by food.

"It’s no surprise if the MasterChef incident united Indonesians and Malaysians. It shows that they finally see they have a shared culture and shouldn’t be fighting with each other anymore.”