Mouthing Off | American cuisine better than Vietnamese, Korean, Singaporean? ‘Best’ list stirs tempers
The ‘100 Best Cuisines in the World’ list from TasteAtlas is angering people with its contentious food rankings. Singapore at number 90?
A new food list stirred a wasp’s nest of controversy last week. An online guide called TasteAtlas published its “100 Best Cuisines in the World” ranking, and – surprise, surprise – some countries were not very happy.
The website, started by a Croatian journalist, says it aims to be an experiential compendium of traditional foods and dishes, rather than a list that rates avant-garde chefs and fine dining establishments. In its own words, it wants to be “an encyclopaedia of flavours, a world atlas of traditional dishes, local ingredients and authentic restaurants”.
So far, it claims to have catalogued over 10,000 foods and drinks, and extends the ambitious gastro-anthropology to map even more dishes, condiments and ingredients from everywhere across the world.
From this milieu, it created its list. The top 10 honours, from first place to 10th place, go to Italy, Greece, Peru, Portugal, Spain, Japan, Turkey, China, France and Indonesia.
The full list is on the website, and it is fair to say some of the choices are contentious, if not downright questionable.
For example, American food is ranked number 15, ahead of Vietnamese at 16 and Korean at 19. Who is going to stand up for the merit of a hamburger over a bowl of pho or bibimbap?