The book is bound to be a bestseller with a number of notable and well-traveled chefs coupled with votes by the many Lonely Planet staffers around the globe, thus lending more credence to the compilation.
You cannot do such a compilation without it being argued and debated vigorously. Taste is so subjective but I do believe there is a distinctive tastiness curve globally. As more and more people travel, the world gets a lot smaller, in a good way.
I have often shied away from proclaiming Malaysian food is de best when I young. However the more I travel, the more I find that many local dishes are pretty excellent. Maybe its the amalgamation of a few distinctive, yet meshable cultures, a fusion pot that does not bring fusion to be a bad or distilled word that we associate with most of the time.
In the book of 500... Malaysia had 11 entries. That's slightly more than 2%. There are 195 countries in the world. By right each country should only have 2.56 of entries in the book. Even if we whittle the number of comparative countries to 100, it should be just 5 entries per country. So we are punching way above our weight (pardon the pun).
Have a look at the other local entries. Again, all Malaysians would have a gala time debating the correct order. What was even more alarming to us was the OMMISSIONS from list. One thing for sure, the Singaporeans will be claiming that half the dishes belong to them, go fly wau la.
1. Ikan bakar (No. 60)
2. Assam laksa (No. 123)
3. Beef rendang (No. 268)
4. Wantan mee (No. 299)
5. Kaya toast (No. 352)
6. Roti canai (No. 404)
7. Char kway teow (No. 432)
8. Durian (No. 445)
10. Bak kut teh (No. 468)
https://www.malaymail.com/s/1662709/not-only-curry-laksa-10-other-malaysian-favourites-in-lonely-planets-ultima?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook
Looking at the top 20 list, it was obvious that Lonely Planet wanted to be inclusive so as to offend fewer people and sell more books. Each of the 20 entries was from a different country.
Its close to an abomination that the following dishes did not make the list:
nasi lemak
ngachoygai
rojak
apom balik
sarawak laksa
cendol
prawn mee
satay
All said, we can tell tourists that if you came for the 11 dishes, we have probably another 11 (and more) which are even better.
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