Macaroni penguin been considered separate species, but the close similarities of their DNA sequences has led some, such as the Australian ornithologists Les Christidis and Walter Boles, to treat the royal as a subspecies of the macaroni. The two species are very similar in appearance; the royal penguin has a white face instead of the usually black face of the macaroni. Interbreeding with the Indo-Pacific subspecies of the southern rockhopper penguin ("E. chrysocome filholi") has been reported at Heard and Marion Islands, with three hybrids recorded there by a 1987–88 Australian National Antarctic Research Expedition. The macaroni penguin is a large, crested
Macaroni dish in North America, and is often made with elbow macaroni. The same dish, known simply as macaroni cheese, is also popular in Great Britain, where it originated. A sweet macaroni pudding containing milk and sugar (and rather similar to a rice pudding) was also popular with the British during the Victorian era. In areas with large Chinese populations open to Western cultural influence, such as Hong Kong, Macao, Malaysia and Singapore, the local Chinese have adopted macaroni as an ingredient for Chinese-style Western cuisine. In Hong Kong's "cha chaan teng" ("tea restaurants") and Southeast Asia's "kopi tiam" ("coffee shops"),