A restaurant in New Zealand has come under the fire for using racial slurs on its menu. Asian fusion restaurant Bamboozle in Christchurch has dishes with the names “Chirri Garrik an Prawn Dumpring”, “Ho Lee phuk” and “Zhou Dynasty ‘Snake Mother'”. While the restaurant has been operating with the menu for two years, it recently faced the wrath of social media after a Twitter user posted a picture of their menu card. Some of their other dishes on the menu reads “Eja Ku Rait” and “Tay’s Velly Special Penang Style Seafood” referring to how some Chinese speaker pronounce the letter L and R. The restaurant said their customers enjoy the names on the menu card as “part of the experience”. However, not everyone on social media feels the same.
H&M Receives Backlash and Flak on Twitter for Selling a Hoodie With Racist Caption
Most of them commented saying that it was racist in nature. Alice Galletly, a customer, posted their menu card on Twitter with the caption, “Ho lee phuk, the menu for Bamboozle restaurant in Chch is some super juvenile racist trash!” Many Twitter users decided to never go the restaurant after the tweet went viral, while thought a hue and cry was created out of nothing. While most criticised the restaurant’s racial slur, some said that they were simply being hilarious and was not intending to hurt sentiments on people belonging to any race. However, not many seemed convinced of that argument.
Here is the tweet:
And here’s how people reacted:
In an interview with New Zealand Herald, the restaurant owner Philip Kraal defended his menu. He was quoted as saying, “Pretty much everyone [sic] of our customers enjoys the written menu as part of their overall experience.” This is the not the first time Kraal found himself in trouble over the name of dishes in his menus. In 2009, his restaurant Crumpet Club came under fire for a chicken, brie and sweetcorn pie that was described as “slightly gay, I know, but oh so tasty”. After the matter went up to the Human Rights Commission, the description of the pie was removed from the menu.