S'pore ranked 52 on world's best cuisines list: 'Some taste buds gone awry somewhere,' says Violet Oon

Do you agree?

Singapore has been ranked 52 on a list of the World's Best Cuisines by TasteAtlas that has gone viral even though no one has heard of TasteAtlas before.

For one thing, it is not associated with a famous tyre company like the Michelin Guide.

TasteAtlas is a food website founded in 2018 by a Croatian journalist named Matija Babić.

On Dec 22, it published its yearly "Best Cuisine in the World" list for 2022 with the disclaimer: "Don't hate us, we just count the ratings."

The top 10 countries are:

  1. Italy
  2. Greece
  3. Spain
  4. Japan
  5. India
  6. Mexico
  7. Turkey
  8. United States
  9. France
  10. Peru

Singapore culinary icon Violet Oon is not too impressed with the list.

She told Stomp: "I sort of can understand No. 1 to No. 11 (China squeaked in at No. 11) about the countries with the best food in the world.

"Then it goes into a wild tailspin – like wherever the dart was thrown and landed on, fascinating country names like Slovakia, Estonia, North Macedonia – but hey, Singapore in at No. 52.

"And to add insult to injury, below Malaysia’s 39! Some taste buds gone awry somewhere."

But one Redditor agreed with Singapore's middling ranking.

He wrote: "I’ve never thought that Singapore was a country with good food, but Singaporeans always think otherwise and people around me always rave about our food.

"But our food is rarely exported. I’ve always thought that a mark of good cuisine is that you can find it anywhere in the world. But it’s so rare to find Singaporean food overseas."

Another Reddittor replied: "I think you have mistaken 'has good food' with cuisine. A country with access to good food does not necessarily have a good cuisine."

Others also criticised the list and TasteAtlas tried to explain its methodology on Twitter.

But if your country tops the list, then you probably could not be happier with it, like the Italian Minister of Agriculture.

Apart from the world's best cuisine list, TasteAtlas also compiles the best places in the world where you can enjoy your favourite dishes.

For example, according to its food experts, the best roti jala in the world is in Singapore – at National Kitchen by Violet Oon.

The restaurant at the National Gallery in St Andrew Road is also recommended by TasteAtlas for its laksa, fish head curry, Hainanese chicken rice, idli, satay, coronation chicken and rendang.

So even though Violet earlier said that some of the taste buds at TasteAtlas had gone awry somewhere, she added: "Some other of the taste buds must be super good because in 2020, the laksa at National Kitchen by Violet Oon was voted best in the world!"
 

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