Online food guide Taste Atlas included four Filipino dishes in its 2023 “100 Worst Rated Foods in the World” list.
Before the evolving list was updated this week, Filipino spaghetti ranked 81st, while balut, which the food guide previously ranked as the worst egg dish in the world, ranked 9th on the list of world’s worst-rated dishes. Lesser-known Filipino food kinalas, a regional noodle soup dish, landed the 17th spot, while hotsilog, a fried rice meal topped with fried hotdogs and eggs, was listed at 36th.
Filipino spaghetti, which is characterized by its sweet sauce combined with ground meat and sliced hotdogs, was described in Taste Atlas’ listing as a dish slowly becoming a “national dish in the Philippines.”
Considered by many Filipinos as a comfort food, the dish is usually served during gatherings or special occasions.
Balut, a steamed, fertilized duck egg consumed throughout Southeast Asia, saw a massive jump from last year’s 283th place in the guide’s worst-rated food in the region. According to Taste Atlas, the dish is considered a “poor man’s meal in the Philippines.”
It has gained notoriety in the Western world after being presented in food shows as “exotic” and “bizarre.” The egg dish is also listed as the 9th most disgusting food in the world and is even included in Sweden’s Disgusting Food Museum.
Meanwhile, kinalas is a noodle dish from the Philippine province of Bicol that contains brains and other scraped meat from pork or beef head. The website describes its thick soup as “a shrimpy, garlicky brown gravy consisting of dried shrimps, vinegar, garlic, shallots, soy sauce, and fish sauce.”
Hotsilog, a variant of “silog” — fried rice paired with a fried egg and fried meats — dishes, is a traditional breakfast fried rice dish that features bright red, Filipino-style hotdogs.
Taste Atlas’ list caused a minor social media stir in the Philippines, with some Filipino commenters expressing…
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