Malaysia Ranks 39th In The World's Top 50 Best Cuisines & The Internet Is Not Happy
"I think this list should be renamed from TasteAtlas to TastAless."
By Jasmine Chea — 27 Dec 2022, 01:03 PM
Another day, another food ranking list has Malaysians scratching their heads with the score that our local cuisine was given.
This time, Taste Atlas has ranked Malaysian cuisine 39th on their top 50 list of the best cuisines in the world.
According to the list released on Friday, 23 December, by the Croatian-based experiential travel guide, the highlights of our local cuisine were nasi lemak, curry puffs, laksa, satay celup, roti pisang, etc.
However, despite all the gastronomical delights our country has to offer, Malaysia garnered a measly score of 3.99. We tied with Bosnia and Herzegovina (38th) and Lebanon (40th).
Coming out at the top is Italy, with a score of 4.72, whereas Greece and Spain came in second and third, with a score of 4.68 and 4.59, respectively.
Despite having similar foods to us, Singapore was not included in the top 50 list, while Indonesia was ranked 16th.
After the controversial list was released, the Internet was abuzz as many believed that it was not an accurate reflection of the world's opinion on international cuisine
The more controversial ranking was England topping Thailand on the list, with England placing 29th (4.18), and Thailand in 30th place (4.16).
Another ranking that got feathers ruffled was that the US managed to bag 8th place in the list, topping gastronomically lauded countries such as France (9th), China (11th), South Korea (19th), and Vietnam (20th).
Interestingly, Croatia ranked 17th on the list with a score of 4.33.
To make matters worse, Taste Atlas also released a list of the top 50 'Best Dishes of the World' in 2022, which many felt did not reflect the previous rankings
According to the list above, many countries that made it into the top 50 'Best Cuisines in the World' list did not even have their dishes named.
These countries include the US, Malaysia, Indonesia, and South Korea, to name a few.
Of course, considering how Malaysia has always been famous for its diverse and delicious array of food, many Malaysians were less than thrilled with the ranking
Many were disappointed with the fact that Malaysia scored lower than most European countries, despite offering well-spiced and well-seasoned traditional foods that tourists flock to our country sample.
Some netizens speculated that the authors of the list could not handle spice and therefore, did not favourably rank the countries that typically have heavily-spiced dishes.
One netizen poked a few holes in the list's logic, pointing out that there are certain cuisines that bear similarities with others, yet are ranked very differently.
Due to the backlash their list has received, Taste Atlas has released a statement, explaining its methodology for the food rankings
The guide has also requested that the hate on its list to cease, as its claims that the ranking is based on the voices of real people.
As a true-blue Malaysian, I'm confident in our country's cuisine so I buat tak tau je lah to this list
