Everybody loves food (except for those with Anorexia
I supposed), for every food is God’s gift sorts of thing.
Ever watch the movie of Ratatouille?
Gusteau said : “Good food is like music you can taste, colour you can smell."
Yeah right, each flavour is totally unique, but combine one flavour with another, and something new was created.
One characteristic of mankind is that: They don’t just survive, they discover, they create, I mean just look at what they do with food.
Now, imagine every great taste in the world being combined into infinite combinations:
Tadaa!!
And thus, Chinese people have Chinese cuisine like Peking Duck, Chinese Fried Rice, Dim Sum, To Fu, Man Tou, Bak Kut Teh etc;
Japanese have Miso Soup, Teppanyaki, Tempura, Udon, Soba, Green Tea Ice-cream, Sushi & Wasabi!! etc;
Italian with their traditional pasta, spaghetti, pizza, Nutella (hey I just knew this hazelnut chocolate spread is an Italian cuisine, the Italian company Ferrero has it liked by people all around the world!! Just a perfect blend with white bread) etc;
Korean produced Kongguksu, Miyeok Guk (Similar to Miso Soup), Gejang, Bulgogi, Jokmal, Kimchi and many others;
The cuisine of United States featured apple pie, sirloin steak, barbecue smoker, hot dog, hamburgers, popcorn, Coca Cola (?), muffins, brownies, coleslaw, fried fries, fried chicken etc (all kind of fried stuffs, the Americans definitely are the earliest ancestors of fast food);
The Mexican, like others, have their traditional guacamole, chip hat and Cinco de Mayo? etc;
So much more other cuisines out there on earth, and these cuisines can become the symbolic icons of one particular ethnic/ nation. If people mention about sushi and sashimi, what comes to your mind? Japan, that’s absolutely correct.
If you notice, all food of different cuisines come from many tiny things such as salt, sugar, garlic, onion, ginger, scallion, mustard, pepper, rosemary, olive, cheese, saffron, milk etc and animals for instance beef, chicken, mutton, whale (Japanese), fish, seafood, dog and cat (Chinese and Vietnamese). Well, after that is very much depending on styles and tastes varied by class, region and ethnic background.
The various styles of food continued to gain its expansion throughout the world thanks to the influx and efflux of migrators from and to each other’s nation. The immigrants enhanced and added rich diversities to each food created.
As such, everybody is arguing that their food is the best in world.
Food Magazines and websites certainly have done their job in compiling the lists of best food all over the world. Actually, there is no best food in this world. There is only food that is best preferred by most of the people. Meaning to say, food that has the highest popularity.
CNN Travel on 7th September 2011, published on their website, the world’s 50 best foods. The best 10 are :
1) Rendang, Indonesia
2) Nasi Goreng, Indonesia
3) Sushi, Japan
4) Tom yam goong, Thailand
5) Pad thai, Thailand
6) Som tam (Papaya salad), Thailand
7) Dim sum, Hong Kong
8) Ramen, Japan
9) Peking duck, China
10) Massaman curry, Thailand
Out of the 10, Thais surprisingly have 4 of their food in the list!! I have been to Thailand and tasted some of their food, definitely I will not call it spicy but some kind of tongue-paralyzing tang. You must get to taste it yourself one day!!
Not bad, Indonesia has 2 of their food in the top 2. Who will expect that though, Rendang and Nasi Goreng are just ordinary food the Malaysians could eat every day, just not sure how Indonesia’s Rendang and Nasi Goreng are different from Malaysia’s. Indonesia’s Satay is 14 on the list, now I am unsure is Satay Malaysian or Indonesian food? Satay is well- known traditional Malay food in Malaysia though, I have no idea at all Indonesian has it too.
Sushi and Ramen from Japan are both deserving, they are just irresistible for me. Japanese simply have their own ways in handling food and their ways are non-replicable. Their food are always creative, natural, delicious, good looking yet so healthy to eat. It is in their DNA, I guess, long ago embedded in their souls.
Dim Sum is too, another delight for me, Shrimp Dumpling is my all-time favourite. I could eat up to 50 of it a day but Peking Duck not so. I have worked in a Chinese restaurant before, seeing how they served the duck. The whole duck will be roasted to shiny brown, and having it left to stand with some metal supporting at the neck while serving. The waiter will then slice the duck skin, wrap it in a steamed pancakes (simplified Chinese: 春饼; traditional Chinese: 春餅). Inside the pancake you will see some accompany materials such as spring onions, sweet bean sauce and cucumber sticks. The pancake is wrapped around the meat with the vegetables and eaten by hand. What is interesting of this dish is just the crispy duck skin, after that, the whole duck meat, bones and fats will be taken home by the customers or absorbed by the restaurant like my case. The restaurant can have many usage of the remaining such as making it into a broth or used to boil soup.
Just
mentioning, our neighbour nation, Singapore has 4 food listed on the World’s 50
Best Foods. On 13, it is the chicken rice; on 29, it is the chili crab; on 44,
it is the laksa, and lastly on 45, it is the roti prata.
Surrounded by Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore, Malaysia herself and I are so fortunate and happy, for the food, of course.
3) Sushi, Japan
4) Tom yam goong, Thailand
5) Pad thai, Thailand
6) Som tam (Papaya salad), Thailand
7) Dim sum, Hong Kong
8) Ramen, Japan
9) Peking duck, China
10) Massaman curry, Thailand
Out of the 10, Thais surprisingly have 4 of their food in the list!! I have been to Thailand and tasted some of their food, definitely I will not call it spicy but some kind of tongue-paralyzing tang. You must get to taste it yourself one day!!
Not bad, Indonesia has 2 of their food in the top 2. Who will expect that though, Rendang and Nasi Goreng are just ordinary food the Malaysians could eat every day, just not sure how Indonesia’s Rendang and Nasi Goreng are different from Malaysia’s. Indonesia’s Satay is 14 on the list, now I am unsure is Satay Malaysian or Indonesian food? Satay is well- known traditional Malay food in Malaysia though, I have no idea at all Indonesian has it too.
Sushi and Ramen from Japan are both deserving, they are just irresistible for me. Japanese simply have their own ways in handling food and their ways are non-replicable. Their food are always creative, natural, delicious, good looking yet so healthy to eat. It is in their DNA, I guess, long ago embedded in their souls.
Dim Sum is too, another delight for me, Shrimp Dumpling is my all-time favourite. I could eat up to 50 of it a day but Peking Duck not so. I have worked in a Chinese restaurant before, seeing how they served the duck. The whole duck will be roasted to shiny brown, and having it left to stand with some metal supporting at the neck while serving. The waiter will then slice the duck skin, wrap it in a steamed pancakes (simplified Chinese: 春饼; traditional Chinese: 春餅). Inside the pancake you will see some accompany materials such as spring onions, sweet bean sauce and cucumber sticks. The pancake is wrapped around the meat with the vegetables and eaten by hand. What is interesting of this dish is just the crispy duck skin, after that, the whole duck meat, bones and fats will be taken home by the customers or absorbed by the restaurant like my case. The restaurant can have many usage of the remaining such as making it into a broth or used to boil soup.
 |
| Peking Duck |
Looking
at it, it seemed like the people are obsessed very much in Asian’s food. That
is very proud for the Asian for their food arts especially the Thais. As
an Asian and a Malaysian, I have reason to feel proud too because Penang Asam
Laksa is on the 26. Woah,
Penang again!! On 19th September 2012, Forbes voted Penang #3 in the
world’s top 10 cities for street food, but recently on 4th February
2014, Lonely Planet picked Penang as top spot for foodies in 2014. According to
it, the “must tries” are Char Kway Teow, Hokkien Mee (Also known as Har Mee, Prawn Noodle) and Asam Laksa.
 |
| Asam Laksa |
 |
| Char Kway Teow |
 |
| Hokkien Mee (Har Mee) |
Surrounded by Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore, Malaysia herself and I are so fortunate and happy, for the food, of course.
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