Man Unhappy That in a “4-Dish Cai Png”, 1 of the Dishes is the Rice

Singaporeans take their food very seriously. Especially when we’re paying for it, and it appears to be of lower quality. Just think about the flake SIA’s economy meals received for looking like low-quality food.

One Singaporean man took to the internet to complain about his food catering service after being blindsided about one of the “dishes” that he was supposed to receive as part of the package.

It turned out that one of his four dishes on a particular day was seasoned rice. That left a bad taste in his mouth (figuratively).

Here’s what went down.

Seasoned Rice Is Considered a Dish for Food Catering Service

When someone mentions a “dish” at dinner, I think few, if any, of us would think about referring to rice as a dish.

Mr Dong (Hanyu pinyin) is no exception. The 42-year-old engineer had a rude shock when rice, albeit seasoned, turned up as one of the dishes in his food catering box one fine day.

This reminds us of misleading labels (we’re looking at you, HDB!). Why does a 4-room flat have only three bedrooms? Then again, the living room can serve as a “room” if you’re kicked out of the master bedroom for the night.

Back to Mr Dong. He had signed up for the “4 dishes” food catering option from Neo Garden for two people. The total cost of the food for ten days was S$210.60.

The Neo Garden website offers an “Omakase Family Tingkat” option for two people at the same price (including GST).

On 12 April 2023, he received his food catering order and found that one of the “dishes” included for the day was a side of white rice topped with seaweed.

Mr Dong, speaking to Shin Min, lamented that a typical person would expect “four dishes” to consist of either meat or vegetables instead of rice. He quips that even fried rice would be “more reasonable”.

Furthermore, Mr Dong adds there is an option at the checkout page to purchase white rice for S$1. If the customers are expected to add on white rice, won’t two people be eating four portions of rice?

Mr Dong also mentioned that on one of the other days, he catered food, nasi lemak (coconut rice) was added as one of the four dishes. He claims that the other food caterers that he ordered from did not take rice as a dish.

Therefore, Mr Dong stopped patronising Neo Garden after two weeks.

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Neo Garden’s Response to Rice-As-A-Dish Controversy

Neo Garden’s response to this issue was that the seasoned rice dish was specially curated for their Wednesday menu, which revolves around Korean food. The rice used was premium Japanese rice cooked with broth and topped with good-quality soy sauce. There was also seaweed as a garnish.

The spokesperson for Neo Garden also explained that the rice dish provided was the best combination with the other food items offered on the menu and was curated after they conducted taste tests.

Perhaps they were inspired by jumeokbap or Korean seasoned rice balls, where rice is seasoned with soy sauce and seaweed before being shaped into bite-sized balls. The seasoned rice balls may also be mixed with meat before being rolled into balls.

However, given the controversy over the dishes provided, Neo Garden also generously accepted that seasoned rice might not be to everyone’s liking. As such, they are taking into account customer feedback and reviewing their menu.

Would you consider rice as a dish?