Malaysian celebrity Uncle Roger in hot water for defaming Cambodian cuisine

By Hoang Vu August 9, 2023 | 04:00 am PT

Malaysian video producer and comedian Nigel Ng, also known as Uncle Roger. Photo courtesy of Nigel Ng's Facebook page

Cambodian's Ministry of Tourism has condemned Malaysian video producer and comedian Nigel Ng, better known as Uncle Roger, for defaming Cambodian cuisine on YouTube.

The ministry said that they were "extremely disappointed after seeing a video that wrongly evaluates Cambodian food on social media on a YouTube channel named Nigel Ng, published on July 30," the Khmer Times reported.

The ministry said the comedian's assessment of Cambodian cuisine negatively impacted the country's food tourism efforts.

Cambodian authorities are working with authorities to ask Nigel Ng to make a public apology to the Cambodian people and edit the post.

Uncle Roger, who has over 8.2 million subscribers on YouTube, earlier made a number of remarks about Cambodian and Laotian food, saying, "Not all Southeast Asian food is good... you don't want food from Cambodia and Laos," and compared the two countries' food to an inferior imitation of Thai cuisine.

His remarks triggered public criticism from some social media users.

Last May, Uncle Roger was banned from Chinese social network giant Weibo for violating Chinese laws and regulations.