Explained: What’s ‘Daging Harimau Menangis’ And Why Are Netizens Furious With Neelofa’s Mom?
© Provided by Rojak Daily Explained: What’s ‘Daging Harimau Menangis’ And Why Are Netizens Furious With Neelofa’s Mom?
We know how much Malaysians love food regardless whether it’s local cuisine, Japanese, Korean, Indian or even Thai.
Those of you who are familiar with Thai food would know the Crying Tiger Beef (Sua Rong Hai) dish or popularly known as ‘daging harimau menangis’ on our shores.
The dish consists of thinly cut slices of marinated beef grilled to perfection served with Thai sauce and occasionally served with sticky rice.
On Wednesday, Twitter exploded with ‘daging harimau menangis’ drama to the point that it was trending at #1
Apparently Neelofa’s mother, Noor Kartini, who runs a food business, has filed an application to trademark the term ‘Harimau Menangis’.
Netizens Vs. Neelofa’s Mom
Noor Kartini has been selling her own version of the ‘harimau menangis’ dish via her own business, Aunty Tini’s Kitchen for a few months now and perhaps to further strengthen her position in the market, she decided to file a pattern for the name of the dish.
A screenshot of her application to the Intellectual Property Corporation of Malaysia (MyIPO) has gone viral on the internet.
The photo itself has triggered netizens as many fear that they would not be able to sell the same dish in the future especially with the economic situation in the country.
To further fuel fire, a short clip from Noor Kartini’s Instagram stories shows her cooking the beef dish while saying “we’ve trademarked ‘Harimau Menangis’, Aunty Tini’s brand” to which the person recording replied “so now, no one can use the word ‘Harimau Menangis’ anymore”.
Noor Kartini then continued to say other should opt to use the names ‘harimau mengilai’ or harimau beranak’ instead.
This led to a group of netizens to launch a campaign and call Malaysians to submit their objection towards the trademark at MyIPO.
Some who were oblivious to what ‘Harimau Menangis’ is found humour and said the only crying tigers they’ve heard of were probably their bank accounts (read: Maybank) or the beer.
Damage Done, Statements Out
Since the matter has gone out of hand, both Noor Kartini and MyIPO has issued statements about the trademark kerfuffle.
According to Aunty Tini’s official Instagram page, they have filed a trademark for the stylization, graphics, and colours for the word ‘Harimau Menangis’ on the packaging.
She says that the reason for doing so is to avoid counterfeit products in the market and has never stopped anyone from selling the same dish.
“We would also like to apologise for the poor choice of words used in the video that went viral on social media recently,” the statement ended.
MyIPO on the other hand says that Noor Kartini’s application in November is still under review and has not been approved, making it exclusive to her.
“We hope Noor Kartini would not precede our judgement or verdict to her application and claim that ‘Harimau Menangis’ has been trademarked under her.”
No word yet on when MyIPO will release their results on the application so it seems like netizens would have to wait and see.
So folks, let this be a lesson to always be cautious with what you say on social media because you’ll never know when it will come back to bite you.
Cap dagang ‘Harimau Menangis’ belum lulus, jangan dahului MyIPO – KP
