What’s your favourite food?
Perhaps it’s the trending smashed avo on toast, or maybe your grandmother’s baba ganoush.
Maybe you like a piece of meebos every now and then, or prefer to dive into a big portion of samp and Chakalaka.
Whatever it is and wherever it is from, favourite foods are a personal choice.
But in an effort to define a list of the “tastiest” foods in the world, CNN “scoured the planet” for what they think are the 50 best food dishes currently in existence.
While we might have beef with a few of them (Marmite on buttered toast sits at number 42 and I think it’s pretty much the worst food in the world), it’s pretty cool to see that two of South Africa’s favourite’s sit in the top 20.
Check the South Africa listings below, followed by CNN’s top five:
19: Bunny chow, South Africa
Despite the name, no rabbits are harmed in the making of one of South Africa’s best-loved street foods. Bunny chow is hollowed-out half- or quarter-loaves of white bread filled with super-spicy curry. The dish originated in Durban’s Indian community.
12: Piri-piri chicken, Mozambique
The South African restaurant chain Nando’s has made Mozambican-Portuguese piri-piri chicken loved around the world. But for the original dish, head to Maputo, capital of Mozambique. Galinha à Zambeziana is a finger-lickin’ feast of chicken cooked with lime, pepper, garlic, coconut milk and piri piri sauce.
OK, so Nando’s serves it here at home, but for peak piri-piri chicken head, to Mozam.
5: Peking duck, China
The maltose-syrup glaze coating the skin is the secret. Slow roasted in an oven, the crispy, syrup-coated skin is so good that authentic eateries will serve more skin than meat, and bring it with pancakes, onions and hoisin or sweet bean sauce. Other than flying or floating, this is the only way you want your duck.
4: Sushi, Japan
When Japan wants to build something right, it builds it really right. Brand giants such as Toyota, Nintendo, Sony, Nikon and Yamaha may have been created by people fueled by nothing more complicated than raw fish and rice, but it’s how the fish and rice is put together that makes this a global first-date favorite. The Japanese don’t live practically forever for no reason — they want to keep eating this stuff.
3: Chocolate, Mexico
The Mayans drank it, Lasse Hallström made a film about it and the rest of us get over the guilt of eating too much of it by eating more of it. The story of the humble cacao bean is a bona fide out-of-the-jungle, into-civilization tale of culinary wonder. Without this creamy, bitter-sweet confection, Valentine’s Day would be all cards and flowers, Easter would turn back into another dull religious event.
2: Neapolitan pizza, Italy
Spare us the lumpy chain monstrosities and “everything-on-it” wheels of greed. The best pizza was and still is the simple Neapolitan, an invention now protected by its own trade association that insists on sea salt, high-grade wheat flour, the use of only three types of fresh tomatoes, hand-rolled dough and the strict use of a wood-fired oven, among other quality stipulations. With just a few ingredients — dough, tomatoes, olive oil, salt and basil (the marinara pizza does not even contain cheese) — the Neapolitans created a food that few make properly, but everyone enjoys thoroughly.
1: Massaman curry, Thailand
Emphatically the king of curries, and perhaps the king of all foods. Spicy, coconutty, sweet and savory. Even the packet sauce you buy from the supermarket can make the most delinquent of cooks look like a Michelin potential. Thankfully, someone invented rice, with which diners can mop up the last drizzles of curry sauce. “The Land of Smiles” isn’t just a marketing catch-line. It’s a result of being born in a land where the world’s most delicious food is sold on nearly every street corner.
Hungry? I don’t blame you.
Now enjoy smelling that egg sandwich your co-worker insists on guzzling every lunch. You know who you are.
[source:cnn]
