This fried rice, Uncle Roger approve.
Oh, wow. That’s lovely.
The Uber was bumpy.
- Hi. I’m Josh. - I’m Ollie.
I’m Nigel Ng. Aka Uncle Roger.
And this is JOLLY.
Let’s go inside, shall we?
Hello, my name is Uncle Roger.
If you don’t know who Uncle Roger is, what rock have you been living under?
Hiiyaah.
His YouTube Channel blew up last year. And today we’re sitting down with Nigel Ng.
The man behind it all
To try some fried rice he actually likes
Today, we’re here at Laksamania.
Yes.
And what are we eating today?
We are eating Malaysian food.
Wonderful.
And we’re getting a little bit of everything,
I got crazy motion sickness in the car on the way here.
Whilst it does look appetising, I do not want to eat anything.
You have to eat for the camera, man.
Exactly.
Tom Cruise keeps filming with a broken leg and you’re not gonna eat that?
ThE uBeR wAs BuMpY tOdAy.
Wow, this looks good!
This is the most traditional Malaysian thing, Satay.
No peanut allergies, right?
No, nah, we’re good. We’re good.
How refreshing.
This is Wasabi prawn, it’s not super Malaysian.
This has got caviar. It’s not Malaysian.
This is just one of your favourite dishes?
I actually never tried this one before, so I’m just using them to get caviar.
Put it on the Korean Englishman’s tab.
- This is salted egg tofu. - Wait, what?
Salted egg is duck egg that’s been brined for a few days.
It gives it that intense, rich, salty flavour. Let’s try the satay, first.
Look at that!
Dig in.
- Oh, wow. - That’s good.
It’s melting on the inside, charred on the outside.
Oh, my gosh, that is incredible.
I think that’s the best satay I’ve ever had.
Normally it takes a few dishes before I start bringing out the high praise
but that’s incredible.
You know what chicken British people like? They like Nando’s.
People say, “Oh, you have a blue tick on Instagram. Do you have a Nando’s black card?”
I’m like, I have 1 million followers. I don’t want to eat at Nando’s.
We work hard to not eat at Nando’s ever again.
That’s literally a thousand times better than Nando’s.
- So it’s been quite a year for you. - Ooh, boy, yeah.
- You blew up in the pandemic. - Yeah, super lucky.
What’s that been like?
For me, I’ve been doing stand up for 10 years.
So, YouTube blowing up was, we call it a break, right?
As an artist, you’re just working for that break.
Super grateful, man.
Nobody’s guaranteed a break in the entertainment world.
Yeah, of course.
Yeah, thank you. Thank you, everybody.
Let’s try the Wasabi Prawn. Dip it in the caviar.
You’re killing the prawn, you’re killing all the fish eggs.
Just eat the ocean.
Wow! wow.
Oh, my gosh.
I’m getting this from now on.
- Oh, wow. That is good. - Gosh, that’s quite a strong taste for me.
Ollie has a classic British palate.
Oh.
That sound! Right, next up.
I love this. This is all new.
Salted egg tofu.
Wow. Oh, wow.
It’s crispy on the outside.
- Silky on the inside. - Really silky smooth.
Well, you can’t do a video with me without getting fried rice.
Nasi Goreng, as we call it in Malaysia.
- Look at that picture perfect egg on top. - Incredible.
This is called Wat Tan Hor. This is a very traditional Chinese Malaysian dish.
It’s very hard to find outside of Malaysia, but this restaurant does it.
If this is picture perfect, that is picture imperfect, I’d say.
The amount of concentration going into me not producing that.
Ollie has a bit of motion sickness from his Uber ride.
Life is so hard, he can’t take the Tube.
Get a bit of the noodles, with the sauce.
Silky. Heartwarming. You know?
That’s lovely. Oh, wow.
It’s hearty. There’s a warmth to it, right?
You’ve been doing the comedian thing,
- For ten years, now? - Yeah.
You were nominated for an award at the Edinburgh Fringe festival in 2019?
Best Newcomer.
And am I right in saying you went full time as a comedian in September 2019?
Which is probably the worst possible time…
Six months, and then I lost all my jobs.
Oh, my gosh. So you were doing presumably a bunch of stand up until the pandemic hit.
Yeah, I was doing stand up this whole time.
I had a full time day job at first,
Then, five days a week, and then I would perform four, five nights a week.
- That’s a real grind. - That’s epic. That’s really cool.
Trust me, it’s not lost on me when you get a break like this, it’s like,
the grind makes it worth it.
Did that lead to more of a focus on YouTube?
- You couldn’t do gigs anymore. - Of course, yeah.
I’m running on savings. Let’s try to make something happen.
Fortunately, this thing worked out.
And how did the character of Uncle Roger come about?
We were riffing on the podcast and talked about estate agents.
I was like, “what if my uncle was an estate agent?”
And then I started riffing, and started doing the accent.
The kind of Asian estate agent that’s kinda trying to rip you off.
“Not small, it cosy, it cosy. Blood on wall, but don’t worry. We clean up so nice for you.”
- It sounds like me and Josh’s first flat. - Yeah, it does.
It’s not a character to me. To me, it’s like the middle-aged Asian man
I saw around the neighbourhood, at the coffee shops, they sit with one leg on the chair.
Where do you think I got that from? I’ve literally seen that happen.
I was thinking about it this morning as well. I don’t have an Uncle Roger, but I do have an Uncle Nigel.
Oh yeah. That’s true.
It is a very old-fashioned name.
Because a lot of Malaysians, we adopted British first names, because we used to be a British colony.
But the thing is, the Brits left us in 1957.
The knowledge we have of British names was from the 50s.
You know, they didn’t send us any software updates.
That’s why we have old, old-school names.
Uncle Roger is 50, so I’ll keep doing him until I turn 50 then it’s time to retire the character.
- Because then I am the uncle. - Then, you’re just Uncle Nigel.
Different colour polo shirt.
You’ve laid into a lot of fried rice on the Internet.
Yes, yes.
First, look. It’s good, they have a little dried shrimp there.
That’s dried shrimp? That is nice.
Nasi Goreng has a richer colour than Cantonese style fried rice.
Trust me, I’m like a fried rice scholar now.
- Because we put more sauce, sambal in it. - Accidental fried rice scholar.
Can we get some chilli jam?
- No! - OK..
Let’s try it.
- Good. Good. - Oh. Oh, wow.
Could use a bit more MSG, I think.
There’s like flavours going on here that I was not expecting.
- Just a little bit of spice to it. - The spice comes from the sambal.
- Sambal is a Malaysian chilli shrimp paste. - OK.
- That’s some good fried rice. - That’s insane. That’s actually, yeah.
Compared to a Chinese takeaway egg fried rice, you know?
Leagues above.
This fried rice, Uncle Roger approve.
This is Char Siu.
This is a fancier, upscale version of this Hawker dish.
OK. So you have Hawker centres in Malaysia as well?
Yeah, we have Hawker stalls, centres, street food.
You get a random cart next to a highway.
There are no rules there. I joke about it but it’s real,
You don’t have to worry about food hygiene.
‘Cause if someone eats your food and dies,
You just pack your (bleep) up and cycle away.
They can’t catch you.
That’s what I’m talking about.
Wow. Mm. Mmm.
That’s incredible. Malaysian food, where have you been all my life?
That is incredibly good.
Glad you like it, man.
This we call, Four Heavenly Kings. Four types of vegetables.
They have green bean, aubergine, and then petai.
Which translates to smelly bean.
And then, I think, in English it’s called Bitter Bean.
But I’ve never really seen the English word for petai before.
It might be too much for the British palate.
I won’t take offence if you don’t like it.
I’m OK with that.
- Oh, wow, it does have a little.. ooh. - Wow. It has an aftertaste.
Oh, the aftertaste is strong.
- Oh, my gosh. Holy moly! - Keeps coming.
- That is.. It gets stronger. - Wow.
British people try smelly beans for the first time!
White person tries weird thing for the first time. Always goes viral.
I feel attacked.
I’m onto you guys.
You can’t come to Laksamania without getting Laksa.
So this is one of their craziest ones. Soft Shell Crab Laksa.
What? Oh, man. Looks incredible.
There’s two different types of noodles in there, huh.
If you don’t choose, then, yeah, default is two different types.
- Vermicellli and egg noodle. - I didn’t know that.
Yeah, it’s just two different noodles.
Yeah, I mean, but in one dish?
- So interesting. - That’s fascinating.
Woah. Two types in one plate, woah!
- Sorry. - I was surprised.
- You don’t have to apologise. That’s good. - So good.
Wait till you see the desserts. Three things…
Shut up!
- I am fascinated by this. - Look at that.
I just can’t wait to try this roided up crab.
OK. OK.
- That’s like, really soft shell. - Yeah.
Like, just,
- How does.. It doesn’t count as a shell. - Like, almost no shell.
It’s hard not to think that
- That crab’s shell would be very ineffective against predators. - Against anyone.
Just anything.
Just walks around with a false sense of security.
“Yeah, I got a shell, (bleep) !”
Make sure you take this, too. It’s a special type of tofu.
It’s made to soak up all the sauce.
- So, when you eat it. - Like a sponge.
Yeah. Like a sponge, exactly.
Oh, my gosh. Such an intense flavour, isn’t it?
Oh, that tofu. You bite into the tofu, the sauce like squirts out.
Yeah, the sauce...
Ollie’s not used to things squirting in his mouth.
Oh, no.
- Oh, my gosh. - Yes.
- Dessert time, people. - What?
It’s three things in one bowl, oh my gosh!
What? What?
OK.
So, this is shaved ice. It’s a common thing in Asian dessert, right?
- Shaved ice. Bingsoo? In Korean? - Yeah.
Shaved ice, condensed milk,
the green jelly thing, we’ve got cendol and then red bean at the bottom.
What’s the colour on the top?
Brown sugar. Liquified brown sugar.
Now, you’re speaking my language.
This is good.
So refreshing, isn’t it?
The green jello has its own taste, the red bean complements it nicely.
It’s in like little worm shapes.
It’s not sweet. I think that’s the strange thing about it, right?
Beans in dessert is also a very Asian thing, isn’t it?
Very hard to introduce it to a Western country.
People are always like,
“Beans? But they belong on toast.”
“For breakfast. From a tin.”
I’m sensing some underlying bitterness, here.
A bitter bean.
Ey!
Bitter bean.
- I really enjoyed that, man. - Me, too. I'm so full.
I started feeling very nauseous and,
like Tom Cruise, powered through.
OK. I don’t know if that’s… quite accurate.
Nigel, that was a really delicious meal.
Pleasure is all mine.
- We’re gonna have to go to Malaysia eventually. - Seriously.
- I will go with you guys, man. - Yeah?
- Bring you guys around. - That would be epic.
I’ll dress up as, I’ll do it as Uncle Roger.
Oh my gosh. I’m actually so up for that.
Hit the like button, leave a comment, if you wanna see Uncle Roger do a collab with these guys.
- Proper Uncle Roger. - And then, we’ll have to take you to Korea
And get proper Korean barbecue, and then the fried rice at the end of Korean barbecue.
- That’s going to be good. - Yes. Let’s do that. Let’s do that.
Alright. Well, that’s all for today.
- We’ll see you JOLLY soon. - See you JOLLY soon, guys.
- See you JOLLY soon. - Bye!
Wow, I’m so full.
That was incredible.