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Taste Atlas, a food travel guide, released its most recent ranking of the world's best cuisine -- according to them, at least -- and the results have people with functioning taste buds up in arms.
On Dec. 22, Taste Atlas tweeted their "TasteAtlas Awards 2022: Best Cuisines".
And the countries that came up tops for best foods were Italy, followed by Greece and Spain.
Within the top 10 cuisines in the world, only three Asian countries made the cut: Japan was ranked fourth, India was fifth, and Turkey was seventh.
Singapore is 52nd, while Malaysia is ranked 39th.
Responses
There was little doubt that the results caused more than a stir.
Those incensed by the ranking shared their collective disbelief on both Taste Atlas' Twitter and Instagram accounts.
The main gripe?
That the United States has cuisine that allows it to be ranked eighth in the world, above other countries such as Thailand and Vietnam that are known for their food.
Screenshot from Twitter
Screenshot from Instagram
Screenshot from Instagram
Screenshot from Instagram
Screenshot from Twitter
Screenshot from Twitter
Taste Atlas methodology
Taste Atlas took to Twitter to defend its rankings in a series of tweets, explaining its methodology and how it came to the results.
"Every year when we publish the list, there are a lot of angry people," Taste Atlas wrote.
They even claim that they receive calls from embassies.
"We learned to live with it."
How countries are ranked
Taste Atlas explained that people rate the foods in their database, which contain over 15,000 dishes.
"At the end of the year, we take the average of the best-rated dishes in each kitchen... And that's it," Taste Atlas explained.
Taste Atlas ended the thread with, "No one likes that list, but it is a reflection of the valid voices of real people. That's why we wrote, don't hate us, we're just counting votes."
Singapore ranked 52nd with a 3.94 stars rating
On the Taste Atlas website, a detailed list of all 95 countries ranked shows the ratings each country got, the best-rated foods and restaurants to try for that cuisine.
Singapore has a 3.94 ranking, with black pepper crab as one of the best-rated foods.
Screenshot from Taste Atlas
Yu Sheng is ranked seventh among the most popular Singaporean dishes.
Taste Atlas also has "the 10 best rated Singaporean dishes", with Laksa as the best-rated dish on their website.
Is the ranking a good depiction of a country's cuisines?
For Thailand, oddly, one of the best-rated dishes listed on Taste Atlas was sriracha sauce, a hot sauce used as a condiment for food.
Sriracha is also used as a condiment in Vietnam.
England is ranked 39th, but the first three best rated items are also not typical English dishes.
Screenshot from Taste Atlas
Taste Atlas also compiled the top 100 dishes worldwide -- within the top 50 dishes, there is not one American dish listed.
Screenshot from Instagram
Top photos via Unsplash