By Saloni Rupani
Co-founder and Partner at Dishkiyaoon
To define the best cuisine is like trying to identify the best dress for a woman. It is impossible to find a particular type of food that will suit everyone. Human beings have individual taste and choice and what may be one person’s favourite dish may be detested by another.
However, if one were to pinpoint the most popular cuisine in terms of sheer acceptance of the palate then the following certainly stand out:
1. Chinese
Chinese food has a distinctive culinary style all its own. The emphasis is on fresh, seasonal ingredients, prepared with a minimum of fuss and beautifully balanced for color, texture, and presentation. The emphasis is on satisfying the four senses of sight, taste, smell and touch. Chinese food can be divided into five different regions – Northern, Western, Eastern, Central and Southern, each with distinctive cooking styles. It is no wonder that this cuisine is the second most popular in terms of global acceptance.
2. Mediterranean
Considered to be one of the healthiest food options, it heavily uses ingredients which are considered beneficial to the human body such as olive oil, wheat and other grains, fresh fruits and vegetables, and a certain amount of seafood; low in meat and dairy products. Having said that, this region, comprising of countries like Egypt, Turkey, Greece, Italy and Provencal French and Spanish – has also spawned some of the highly popular dishes such as Pizza, Sausages, – which are not necessarily health giving. But this cuisine remains one of the most acceptable in the world.
3. Thai and neighbouring countries
Thai cooking places emphasis on lightly prepared dishes with strong aromatic components and a spicy edge. Thai food as demonstrates intricacy; attention to detail; texture; color; taste; and the use of ingredients with medicinal benefits, as well as good flavor, as well as care being given to the food’s appearance, smell and context. In 2017, in a poll conducted by CNN, seven Thai dishes made it to the list of “most popular food” – more than any other country.There are five main regions in Thai cooking – viz Southern, Northern, Central, Isan or North Eastern and Bangkok.
4. Indian
The sheer variety and taste profiles of the food of this ancient country drives Chefs across the world crazy with the explosion of flavour at every corner of this sub continental cuisine. It is the only food that has not only got its own identity but has imbibed food cultures from across the world and made it uniquely its own. With influences of Dutch, Portuguese, English, French and Muslim cooking, India offers a wide variety of dishes and has a distinctive touch. No country in the world has refined vegetarian food to give it an incredible taste as India has. With over twenty clearly identifiable regions, Indian food is probably the most heavily drawn upon cuisine in the culinary world. The subtle and delicate flavour of spices and wide variety of ingredients used makes Indian food one of the top most recognised and acceptable food in the world today.