Editor's IMHO - Certain Things About Food Culture Are Just Blown Out of Proportions By Social Media

The Incident

Just recently, a few months back, a travel-based channel introducing food in a certain country, dropped into my timeline feed.

This one scene the video cut to, left me suspended in disbelief. The kind that would leave you jaw-dropped, and say out loud: 'The Audacity!'

Apparently, this channel, was trying to package this food item into one 'specialty dish' of said country and introduce it to the world.

Cue the audience head slapping meme.

Behind The Reaction

As a native of that country, this introduction made me think a lot about food culture around the world.

'Why is plain, soft-boiled egg a specialty?';

'How is this unique when literally, every single household around the world could do it just at home?';

'Is that soft-boiled egg made of gold?';

'Why, just why?'

The only thing I could think of, is that they pushed this hard, just for views on social media.

And the most jarring thing was, there was also a native amongst the hosts that promoted this!

The Reality In My Home Country

Soft-boiled eggs, in most of Southeast Asia, is extremely common to the extent that you can find them in a coffee shop 10 steps away from home.

Moving on to point No.2, Nothing is special about this breakfast staple. It is purely eggs boiled in water, no flavoring added into the water, nothing. When it is served to you, you'll just add in pepper and soy sauce into it, and these condiments are optional. Are pepper and soy sauce so hard to find? The answer is a resounding No, these are placed on each table in the coffee shop.

From personal experience, growing up, literally no one has ever told me that soft-boiled eggs tasted good, even with condiments. They'd just try to clear the dish as soon as possible.

Some Food Are Just Food, Not Even Close To Culture

Soft-boiled eggs serve as a quick and cheap breakfast for those looking to replenish protein. This is also the simplest food to replicate across cultures worldwide, it is that simple and common.

Breakfast like this are meant just for nutrition intake, and its not even close to being a food culture.

Why would I, for the life of me, introduce this as a specialty dish of my native country to a foreign friend?

Would you introduce a whole, tasteless grilled carrot you just cooked with fire and nothing else to your friend as a specialty dish?

Such action would only contribute badly to the reputation of my country as a food heaven.

I'd rather introduce them tasty Dim Sum, Pratas or Nasi Lemak, breakfast dishes with a local touch, that are hard to find anywhere else outside of Southeast Asia.

Sometimes food culture is a common sense thing, which seems lost sometimes in the world of social media.

In conclusion, don't simply trust anything you see on social media, look through the comments section too!