 Ew! Asians don't put fruit on rice. That's a white person thing to do. Ah, you teenagers are making me as an older Asian American that's more educated than you so mad! I'm gonna make a post about this on Reddit! Oh, what's Reddit? We gotta talk about this post that says, There is more than one way to make rice. And this person, Andrew, is an older Asian American. Obviously, they're very cultured. They understand that some Asians put fruit on rice. Actually, all Asians put fruit on rice, even though those aren't the most common well-known dishes. So they were mad at seeing some other teenage Asian Americans trying to separate themselves from white people by saying people, white people are the only people who would eat rice pudding with cranberries and cherries on it. So basically this turned into a whole debate about do Asians even know about the other way that other Asians make rice and the way that the usage of rice has spread all across the world and should we gatekeep rice? Should we not gatekeep rice? What is basic Asian knowledge? And we don't want to turn into white people making fun of white people. All right, everybody, please hit that like button. Check out other episodes of the Hot Pop Boys as we talk about this. But one thing that every generation can agree on, whether you're Gen Z or Gen Alpha, is Smala Sauce. Smala chili oil. It's a finishing oil made with truffle. Guys, check out the Instagram right now at Smala Sauce. You can also buy it at SmalaSauce.com. Can you even put that on American fruit rice, though? Yeah, you can put this on anything, literally. But anyways, I guess David, like, yeah, first of all, a couple questions. Gatekeeping rice kind of hard because rice is just a global thing. They eat it in South America. It is true that 90% of the world's rice production comes out of Asia, though. Yeah, but I mean, the South in America, Uncle Ben, that was a popular rice brand, you know. That was weird for me growing up because I was like, I always knew rice as Asian and then I'd see these commercials for Uncle Ben's Minute Rice and I'd be like, is Uncle Ben part Asian? But you know what I mean at first. Did you even know that there was American fruit rice? Like, I guess long story short, we got to explain, Andrew. The OP is an older Asian American who's, I guess, deeply familiar with Asian-Asian cuisine, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And witnesses these Asian-American kids who are more limited in their scope of understanding who are almost trying to have the white kid attitude but towards white people. Right, right, right. They're almost like trying to separate and judge white people for, like, not doing rice properly, right? Right, because they're probably looking at cozy shack rice pudding, which is delicious, by the way, one of my favorite American brands of pudding, cozy shack. And then I guess they put, like, fruit in it. I don't know. I don't know. I never even had that at a white person's house. I didn't know white people ate fruit in rice. I do. They had put cinnamon and raisins with a little bit of rice actually. Oh, okay. Cinnamon raisin you're right in rice pudding, yeah. And maybe more from Eastern Europeans that have immigrated to America, like more originally. And honestly, originally, if you want to turn the clock way back, that dish might have came from Asia, somewhere in South Asia, too. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Rice pudding, that idea of rice pudding. A cure and things like that. Yeah, it might have came from cure. But anyways, guys, I guess it's one, I did not know that actually white people put real fruit into pudding other than raisins. And then I think that just, like, generation Alpha or Gen Z or whatever generation you want to call it, like, they're not exposed to that much yet. They haven't lived life a lot. And I do think that for the millennial generation and Gen Z, there was a very pan Asian identity where it's like, yo, try to know about other Asians. But I don't know if the next, next generation of Asians is thinking that. But maybe they're just not there yet. I mean, we were all ignorant kids at 1.2. Literally, when you were a kid, you have a very small knowledge base. But Andrew, this person, OP was mad. They said, this was some of the most ignorant-ish I've ever heard in my life. Triggered. So anyway, of course, this person went on the list that there's Filipino cock'n'in, Andrew. Thai mango, sticky rice, fruit, kheer in daisy countries, Korean yakshik, Chinese babaufan, Vietnamese have a coconut, raisin rice coconut version thing. And Japanese fruit daifuku, as well as umaboshi, onigiris and different things like this. So this person was basically like, why the heck would these Asian teenagers think that Asians also can't put fruit on rice, huh? No, I think the OP and is probably a little bit older. They're just mad at seeing Asians grow up in America and start reacting like white kids. But towards the white kids. But they're still adopting that sort of like, would you say, I don't want to say punk or more dominant, I'm superior, your inferior attitude. But they're like flipping the uno card on the white kids themselves. Yeah, and I guess for us growing up, we never thought about saying you to white people food, even meatloaf, because I guess we were just exposed to it even though some people might you at meatloaf. But like, I guess, you know what I mean? But like, it never occurred to me that that even rice, the idea of rice pudding was gross. But these kids, I'm assuming David are not like Thai Asian kids. You know how like, if you're family's Thai, you probably definitely had mango sticky rice before. Right, and it's not to say that all generation alpha or all young Gen ZZZ kids are even doing this, right? But I'm not saying that all these Asian rice dishes, these fruit rice dishes are super common. We don't eat the Chinese eight treasure rice that often. Like I've had it maybe. Well, you have to go to more like specialized spots. Yeah, like I've had it like 10 times in my life, honestly. You know what I mean? So it's not that, it's not like we ate it all the time. So I guess they're just not exposed to it yet. And also the discussion sort of spiraled into Uncle Roger's first viral video where he sort of roasted this South Asian British woman for cooking fried rice. And he roasted her and he went so viral off that. But it actually came out that she was cooking rice just a very South Asian biryani way. But that is a little bit strange for fried rice. But if you're South Asian, you may only just cook it that way. Yeah. Well, let's get into the comments sections, David. This first comment I thought was actually really funny. Someone said, I definitely get upset about rice mixed with cheese. It grosses me out for some reason. And interestingly enough, Andrew, because Hong Kong specifically and the Japanese in Tokyo had so much exposure with the British, you can find cheesy rice with sausages in both places. Bro. Or cheesy rice with a pork chop or something. You know, at my elementary, I told you this, that during lunchtime, one of the options was cheesy rice. You could get a side of cheesy rice. And to me, when I saw that, I'm not going to lie. As a kid, I was kind of like cheesy rice. I only know rice with soy sauce. I know rice eating more fish. I know fried rice. But I was like cheesy rice. And then, but it's funny because at the same time growing up, I loved macaroni and cheese. And macaroni and rice are essentially not that different. Right. Right. They're carbs that carry flavor. It's essentially the same. It's just a different form. Yeah. It's just a different form of a different wheat. Yo, some of the kids would go crazy for the cheesy rice. Dude, some kids love cheesy rice. And actually, I would eat some cheesy rice today. It's not that that would be my preferred dish. Shout it out. What? Michael Meninsky? Oh, this. Yeah. The Russian kid. He loved the cheesy rice. I mean, I would say this. I just don't understand why Asians would like gatekeep rice. I feel like noodles makes more sense because you have to do about like 10 things to a bunch of rice to turn it into a noodle. Right. Right. I feel like rice is so base level. It's almost like obviously there's not that many steps between harvesting the rice and it becoming the rice. So why is everybody's going to gatekeep something so close to the core? Yeah. Rice noodles are very, very Asian. But rice, it is Asian, but not. I mean, they eat in South America. They eat inside. They eat it all over the world down. Right. Somebody's saying, what do you think? Should this older OP even be judging Asian-American teenagers for trying to be edgy and trying to develop some sense of tribal self-identity? Even though they are ultimately, they're wrong. Some people are trying to defend these young Asian teens and being like, well, they're just trying to be proud of being Asian. And this is their little ignorant. Yeah. I mean, it's not that big of a deal, bro. Unless they went up to a group of white kids and started being rice pudding, rice pudding people. Right. And then started making their eyes all round. You guys put fruit and rice. You guys are disgusting. Obviously they didn't do that. But, you know, they're just trying to find community and camaraderie somehow. Do you think one of the problems with being a second generation immigrant, Andrew, is that you know you're not white, but nobody really sits you down and gives you like an Asian 101, 102, 103 education? You know what I mean? Like even Asian-American studies is not going to teach you that Asians do indeed put fruit on rice in some dessert dishes. Right. Like nobody, who's going to teach you? Like what course in your normal schooling outside of like your relatives sitting you down and like schooling you on everything is going to teach you any of this? Yeah. Yeah. No, I ended up for sure. Of course, Andrew, this turned into a debate about Uncle Roger judging, like we said, the South Asians for cooking this thing and there's no real right or wrong way to cook rice. There is not. But you could kind of still get big on it because enough, I guess, not everybody knows everything about every other Asian and everybody's arguing. Obviously the OP is arguing in favor of a very large Pan-Asian knowledge base. Yeah. Do you expect every Asian to know everything about every other Asian? Or is it just... I think it would be better though. Or is it just... No, but is it just that you just don't want to see Asians act this way? You don't want to see Asians act ignorant but you also can understand that like what are these kids supposed to know how every culture cooks rice already at the ripe age of 15? Like and if they're, let's say to be honest if they're all Chinese or all Korean or whatever like we don't know what Asian these kids were. They're not exposed to every other Asian culture yet. Right? I guess, I don't know, it's a good question but that's why we try to make the material that we do in a more pop fashion so it's more universally accessible. Somebody brought up a Bo Burnham lyric, Andrew because they were talking... This spiraled into a discussion about Uncle Roger. This guy said, yeah, everybody knows that it's easy to get a laugh with a white crowd because if you're Chinese just do a Chinese accent and then everybody laughs at the Chinese accent because privately they think that your people are laughable and now you've given them a chance to express it in public. So this person was... This went into like a little bit of a derivative discussion about people just doing accents for laughter or people that are Asian judging other Asians for laughter. And yeah, obviously Bo Burnham was saying it's possibly because the mainstream crowd thinks your people are already laughable and you've given them the opportunity to laugh at people. I think that's partially true. I think that's partially true. It's definitely part of it. But if you do come from that group, do you have ownership over that laughability if that's how the Western world views your group is to be laughable? Because I hear that discussion sometimes with the Cantonese accent. Because if you are Cantonese, why shouldn't you be able to do it? But it's true that people consider people with that Hong Kong, you know, the choppy Cantonese accent, not to be serious. They don't take that group of people to sound like that. Yeah. It's complicated, guys. There's a lot of valid arguments on both sides. Somebody said, why do people on Reddit, particularly the Asian-American subreddit, be so sensitive about what other people think or say when it comes like this? Yes, it's ignorant, but it's not that big of a deal. Right. You do see this on Reddit a lot, right? Yeah. Do you think it's people who are overeducated? Perhaps they're not that capitalistic so they have all this time to dedicate in their mind to like things in the world that are not how they would like them to be? I mean, yeah. I mean, what do you think? I feel like that a lot of... There's a lot of cultured people out there and they wish that everybody else was as cultured as they were. You're saying this person, this OP, might be eight, nine, or 10 out of 10 on the Pan-Asian or Pan-Global cultured scale. They know about Kozyshak. They know about Pulau and Central Asia. You know what I mean? They know all about Daifuku in Japan. This whole Reddit post could be a somewhat low-key flex to show how much the OP knows. I can't believe. These kids don't know about Filipino Kakinin or the Thai Mango Sticky Rice or they've never had Fruit Keer. I've had it. Right, you're saying some sort of world cultured cuisine superiority in that ladder. But I mean, again, like I said, like, listen, if you feel like that people need to know things, is it your obligation to step up and let them know? Should she have stepped in and said something? No, I don't think she has to in person, but what are you doing to spread the word? Right, because people... What are you doing? Are you creating content or are you correcting these people in person? What are you doing to be a soldier of this mission if you believe in this mission? We believe in this mission, so we make a lot of content and we also talk to people in person and anytime someone asks me, oh, what's the best of this and this food, I'll try to give them the best answer possible. But what are you doing? Yeah, that's a good point. I mean, let's just get into our takeaways, Andrew. It certainly was somewhat ignorant of those kids and I wish that those teenagers, I hope that they don't adopt almost like, and this is messed up by the way, it's not, I'm not saying this, but everybody gets what I mean. I hope they don't adopt like a white kid attitude towards white kids. Do you know what I'm saying? Because that's not what Asians should do. Once they start to have their culture be more popular or they feel like they've gained the upper hand. I always tell people, I never like people who are sore losers and if the leverage were to flip, I hate people being sore winners that used to be sore losers, because you're basically having a bad attitude regardless of which way the tide swings in your favor or against your favor. So I would hope that kids don't do that, but it's tough to blame them because their knowledge base, like you said, Andrew, is not there. Who's going to teach it to them? Even Asian American studies doesn't teach you anything about Asian cuisine. Yeah. Are you going to be bold enough to tell those kids that group of kids and be like, hey, by the way, guys, there's a lot of different ways that Asians eat fruit on rice. And then they'll be like, uh, okay. And then you're going to have to let them know. And then what if they're like, we don't care. And then you're going to be like, oh, I should have never talked to you anyways. You know what this kind of reminds me of? In the early 2000s, Andrew, and a lot of people are not going to remember this, but some of the people are. There was a split between AZNs and like the Preppy Asians because the AZNs would call the Preppy Asians whitewashed because they would wear Abercrombie or have white friends or like hiking and rock music. But oftentimes the Preppy Asians were even better at understanding the ancient traditions and language of their ancestral homelands than the AZN kids who probably didn't have as much access to like motherland origin schools and things like that. So sometimes the Preppy kids would be like, what do you mean? You say I'm whitewashed because I grew up in a white neighborhood, but I understand our ancestral homeland on a historical and linguistic basis better than you. But then the AZNs were like, but all my friends are Asian and we don't act white. You guys act white, so you guys are whitewashed. So did it go to show you that even back, you know, 20 years ago, Andrew, there's some sort of like weird split and different people ranked their own identity different ways? Yeah, exactly. So I guess you guys let me know in the comments down below what you think. Is it that all Asians should know about other Asians' cultures to this level? Or is it just more of like the attitude of these teen kids that probably triggered the OP? Or is this OP just too sensitive, man? Like, honestly, who cares? These kids are young. They'll figure it out. They didn't go in disrespect and vandalize some white rice pudding shops. You know what I mean? Imagine they went up to some kids and slapped the cozy shack with raisins out of their hand. Rice pudding, people! Ha! Your skin looks like the rice pudding! Why? Anyway, guys, let us know what you think in the comments section below. Are people on Reddit too sensitive? Or do they make a valid point and all Asians should increase our knowledge not only of Western people eating rice but other Asians' unique styles of cooking rice? Keep it civil. We encourage the debate. Until next time, we're the Hop Hop Boys. Peace.