S’pore Food Ranked Higher Than M’sian Dishes; Celebrity Chef Claims Foreigners Don’t Know The Difference

S’pore Food Ranks Higher Than M’sian Food In Global Survey

A recent survey by YouGov, an international market research company based in UK, ranked Singapore’s food higher than Malaysia’s.

Not by a great margin — just a single percentage point.

The survey took the responses of about 25,000 people from 24 different countries
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But standing just an inch ahead of our friendly neighbour was enough to vex Malaysian celebrity Chef Wan, according to The Star.

He thinks that Malaysia’s food ranked relatively low on the board because the survey participants are unfamiliar with the cuisine.

Malaysian cuisine not well known

About the participants, the chef said,

If it’s just random people, not many of them have really travelled all over Malaysia and explored the food so a lot of it is down to ignorance.

He added that the ignorance of the country’s cuisine may also be pinned on the fact that Malaysian restaurants are not common overseas.

If people don’t know about it, they won’t vote for it.

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Ignore the rankings

Chef Wan encouraged fellow Malaysians to not “worry so much” about the rankings because they do not reflect Malaysia’s cuisine “as a whole”.

He then subtly praised his country’s food by claiming that if the survey participants were “food connoisseurs”, Malaysia’s food will surely stand out.

Thai food holds the Southeast Asia crown

While Italian cuisine holds the top spot with a convincing 84% popularity rating, Thai food takes the crown for Southeast Asia with a 70% rating.

It’s not surprising since Bangkok is an extremely popular tourist destination. Thai food is cheap, good and recognisable.

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Celebrate all cuisines

We don’t think the chef was unreasonable in complaining about the rankings.

As a person passionate about and proud of his national cuisine, it’s only natural that he tries to explain its slump on the ranking board.

But to get truly upset over rankings – not saying that he did – would be childish.Taste is after all subjective. If you like a particular cuisine, good for you. And if others don’t like what you like, then so be it.

Let’s just eat what we like and be happy doing so.

Featured image from YouTube.