The world's most puzzling cuisines
Sampling a country’s most popular and traditional dishes can be one of the best parts about visiting or moving to a new country, and a great way to immerse oneself in the culture of a new place. However, these much loved specialties by the locals – can be made of unfamiliar ingredients and sometimes hard to pronounce.
A recent study by Remitly, a leading digital financial services provider for immigrants and their families, identifies some of the world’s most confusing dishes for international travelers.
Research carried out included analyzing 2,700 dishes from over 165 countries around the world, where search terms such as ‘what is’ and ‘how to pronounce’ were used to analyze which dishes were searched for most regularly over the previous year - and therefore considered the most confusing.
Despite been available in many supermarkets around the world, Kimchi topped the list as the most confusing delicacy. It ranked as the most confusing dish, with almost a million (946,090 to be exact) searches from people trying to find out more about the Korean dish. This traditional Korean banchan (meaning side dish), is made up of salted and fermented vegetables - commonly Korean radish or cabbage. The piquant cuisine is used to flavorfully enhance salads meat dishes, soups and even stews.
Ranking as the second most confusing cuisine is Falafel, which is thought to originate in Egyptian cuisine, where it is commonly made with fava beans. The deep-fried balls (or fritters) are extremely popular with vegetarian diners and feature heavily in Middle Eastern cuisine. Falafel is commonly made from fava beans, broad beans, ground chickpeas – or a combination of all three.
The Greek specialty of Gyros (pronounced ‘yi · ros’) ranks in third place with over 660,000 annual searches for the cuisine. Gyros is a hugely popular dish which is made up of meat (often chicken) cooked on a vertical rotisserie which is sliced and wrapped in pita bread along with salad, french fries and tzatziki.
Also ranking in the top ten most confusing dishes is Shawarma, a dish which originated in Turkey and shares many similarities with gyros, including ingredients and cooking preparation method, differing only in its spicier and more complex flavour.
Other foods which feature in the top ten most confusing dishes include Gelato and Gnocchi (pronounced ‘no - kee’), both originating from Italy, and the hugely popular Vietnamese cuisine of Pho ((pronounced ‘fuh’ and not ‘foe’), while Asian cuisines including Chai,( India) Fufu and Sushi (Japan) rank in the top twenty, each with over 280,000 annual searches.
Even the US’s signature sandwich, Peanut Butter and Jelly (PP&J), made it (11th) to the rankings, to be among the foods which are confusing people most.
When in doubt, it’s it’s always best before ordering, to chat to the waiter or restaurant staff – they’ll likely be local and can share information about the different local dishes, the history of the cuisine and what ingredients feature in the dish and how to pronounce it.
Bon Appetite
Source: External
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