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KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysian staple roti canai has shot up to the top position of Croatian-based travel guide TasteAtlas’ street food ranking… or has it?
According to its Facebook post two days ago, roti canai reigned among the top 50 street food listed, beating lumpiang Shanghai (also known as Filipino spring rolls), Japanese karaage and Vietnam’s banh mi.
Interestingly, India’s paratha is ranked number five, followed by Mexico’s gringas (flour tortillas filled with al pastor marinated pork, cheese, and pineapple slices) and China’s guotie (a northern style dumpling commonly referred to as potstickers).
However, a link to the TasteAtlas website in the same Facebook post showed roti canai at the number two spot, overtaken by the guotie.
Nevertheless, the post has garnered quite a reaction, especially from Malaysians, who are more than happy to celebrate the humble dish.
Many have shared their favourite roti canai accompaniments, such as chicken curry, mutton curry and dhal gravy.
Others took to a friendly “food war”, claiming pisang goreng, which is ranked at 42 and credited as Indonesian, as a Malaysian item.
This is not the first time TasteAtlas’ rankings have caught on as it had to defend itself in June after its World’s Cuisines Ranking positioned Malaysia at a lowly 46th out of 50 countries.
A spokesman told The Vibes that while users were given a free hand to rate the dishes, it used artificial intelligence to establish and validate if the ratings keyed in were genuine, and that scores would only be counted if the user was estimated to be “real”.
TasteAtlas is a Croatian-based project founded by journalist and entrepreneur Matija Babić. It claims itself to be an encyclopaedia of flavours and a world atlas of traditional dishes, local ingredients and authentic restaurants.
To date, the company, comprising a team of about 30 authors and researchers, has catalogued more than 10,000 foods and drinks, and some 9,000 restaurants across the globe. – The Vibes, September 30, 2022
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