boon's log 5109.07: What on earth is "Meat Bone Tea"?

I saw this full-page advertisement by the Ministry of Tourism Malaysia (http://www.motour.gov.my/), in the Star paper today and, honestly, was quite ticked off by it.


"Meat Bone Tea?!"

On one hand those "1Malaysia-guys" are preaching about new plans on Government Transformation and plans on improving unity and all that... stuffs. But on the other hand, they come up with some screwed-up advertisement such as this?! How can they expect us to fully trust this "1Malaysia" plan to fly or even mean anything other than just another empty promise, when they can't even convince the people that they really mean business?!

"If you appreciate your
Nasi Lemak, Laksa and
Meat Bone Tea, share it us."

Am I the only one noticing this? Why can't they just call it Bak Kut Teh - just like how they call Nasi Lemak, Nasi Lemak?! Is it because the Hokkien term "Bak Kut" closely relates to PORK? Well, Mr 1Malaysia, here's some news for you, in case you might have missed out - majority of the Malaysian Chinese eat pork.

I mean, let's be fair. If you want to call Bak Kut Teh, Meat Bone Tea, then you should call Nasi Lemak, Fat Rice or Fatty Rice; and Laksa should be called Spicy Vermicelli Soup, or Spicy Sand according to some theory. But calling Bak Kut Teh as Meat Bone Tea really degrades the dish itself. And it really shows us how much the "1Malaysia-guys" really mean business.

We may have Bak Kut Teh variants such as Chick Kut Teh so that our non-Pork-eating friends can also taste the great food creation. But the fact of it is that Bak Kut Teh is Bak Kut Teh... so don't kill it, guys.

C'mon show us you mean business. Call it as it is. As you mention in the advertisement's final words,

"...Be proud of our food heritage and share with others the joy of eating delicious food."

boon out...