Arthur Pang (Facebook)
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Arthur Pang, a Malaysian working as a project manager in Beijing, shared the post recently after having dinner alone at a place called Borderless that claims to serve Singaporean and Southeast Asian food.
The 48-year-old, who hails from Kota Kinabalu, said he used to work in Singapore for nine years prior to his job in China so he was craving for some Singaporean and Southeast Asian food one night.
He told SAYS that his friend recommended Borderless to Arthur, so he decided to give it a try. The first thing that captured his attention was the waitresses in Singapore Airlines (SIA) uniform.
Well, sort of.
Amused by the knock-off SIA sarong kebaya attire, he asked for a menu.
Not sure we’d like to try the pore though, got enough on our face already.
This dish, for example, is definitely not tauhu goreng (fried tofu). Funnily enough, the word ‘taufu’ — which means bean curd — is derived from Cantonese, a dialect of the Chinese language.
Fried rice somehow became fried bee hoon. Could this one just have been a horrible case of misprint?
Then there’s “Scalded Romaine Lettuce” (stir-fried yau mak), a favourite side dish in Malaysia and Singapore that has seemingly been reduced to a bowl of raw broccoli and ice cubes.
Take this fried tofu dish, for instance. We’d be afraid to order something with “Malay meat”!
The error just makes the name of this dish like its ingredients list!
And for this one, instead of prathaor roti canai, they called it by how it’s prepared: “Lion City throw bread”.
As for the next one, we’re guessing it’s named by how you eat the dish?
He tried the chicken rendang and a plate of pineapple fried rice, a.k.a. “Singaporean fried Bee Hoon”.
They also offer bak kut teh and Hainanese chicken rice, Arthur told this SAYS writer. You can also order teh tarik there, but he didn’t order them this time.
He added that he has been stuck in Beijing since February 2020.
“I haven’t been back to Malaysia for over two years now, haven’t seen my family,” he said.
When asked when Arthur will be returning to Malaysia, he said that unfortunately, he can’t come back because of China’s strict entry rules. Returning to China would mean more than 21 days of hotel quarantine.
“So I have to make do with the Malaysian and Singaporean restaurants in Beijing for the time being.”