TasteAtlas ranks the world’s top 100 food cities, with Singapore, Indonesia and Vietnam listed—while Malaysia is notably absent, sparking debate.
FOOD review platform Taste Atlas has received some flak lately after posting their global food city ranking.
In the list of 100 Best Food Cities in the World, the food-based platform had included 21 Italian cities, according to Taste Atlas’ Instagram post.
Four Italian cities ranked top three consecutively with Naples taking the top spot then Milan in second place, Bologna in third and Florence in fourth place while Mumbai, India was ranked in fifth place.
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For any Malaysians out there are wondering if the country was also included, the answer – sadly – is no.
However, our regional neighbours Singapore, Indonesia and Vietnam managed to make it to the list, with Indonesia taking up six spots, which are Jakarta in 21st place, Bandung in 34th place, Padang (45), Surabaya (65), Surakarta (92) and Yogyakarta (97).
Meanwhile, Singapore was ranked 20th in the list. According to the Taste Atlas website, it was stated that the republic island’s “must try” foods are ‘char kway teow’, Hainanese chicken rice, beef kway teow, cereal prawns and chilli crab.
Vietnam snagged three spots in the list with Hué in 36th place, Hanoi in 47th place and finally Ho Chi Minh City in 60th place.
The study was conducted on 18,828 cities based on 590,228 “valid food ratings” on 18,912 dishes in the platform’s database.
The results were calculated based on the highest average ratings for regional and national dishes commonly served in these cities.
Netizens did not spare any criticisms, calling the list “biased” towards Italy, seeing the Mediterranean island’s dominance in the list.
“Look, I am Italian, but this is too much. If we are talking food cities, Tokyo, Paris and New York deserve a top 5 spot, what are we doing?” a user said.
“Malaysia was absolutely snubbed,” another commented.
“Singapore? Seriously? What about Kuala Lumpur?” another pointed out.
