Wellington, Jan 12 (IANS) A New Zealand restaurant has been accused of using mocking racial cliches on its menu.
Asian fusion restaurant Bamboozle in Christchurch features dishes with the names “Chirri Garrik an Prawn Dumpring”, “Ho Lee Kok” and “Zhou Dynasty ‘Snake Mother'”.
Alice Galletly, a customer, first commented on the menu with a picture this week. Some responded with outrage, calling the choice of dish names “shameful”.
The restaurant has operated with the menu for two years, a BBC report said, but the picture posted on Twitter sparked anger on social media.
The restaurant defended saying customers enjoyed the names as “part of the experience”.
“This makes me so mad. There’s no racism in NZ? I beg to… differ” said social media user Chris Tse on Twitter. Some even took to leaving negative reviews of the restaurant on its Google page, the BBC said.
However, there were others that said the menu was “hilarious”. In response Twitter user Julian Liew-Young said: “One Chinese person not finding it offensive doesn’t mean it’s ok.
“I guarantee you the majority of Asians in New Zealand don’t see this as funny. You find it funny because you haven’t been taunted like this for your whole life. It’s not funny. It’s just basic.”
Speaking to The NZ Herald, the restaurant owner Philip Kraal defended the restaurant, saying that “pretty much everyone [sic] of our customers enjoys the written menu as part of their overall experience”.
However, Kraal said they “appreciate the feedback and are actively considering it”.
When contacted by the BBC, a staff member from Bamboozle said they were “not available for comment”.
In response to the outcry, New Zealand’s Race Relations Commissioner Susan Devoy said: “We’ve plenty of world class restaurants in New Zealand, there’s nothing world class about using racial stereotypes to sell food.”