Vietnamese people are annoyed: It's so delicious and you criticize it!
How can we not be "offended"? If foreigners don't know how to eat blood pudding, shrimp paste... then it's fine, but what about Hai Duong's delicious green bean cakes, sweet sticky rice balls, and cool frozen meat, and yet they are at the bottom of the list with a "mediocre" 2-3 star rating?
And what about banh tet, banh chung, kho to fish, canh chua… which are so famous, yet still make it to this list?
But wait, are these really the worst?
Bun mam, a dish that many foreigners find "smelly" but are delicious to eat - Photo: RAY KUSCHERT
First is the name of the list, “45 Worst Rated Vietnamese Foods" which means 45 Vietnamese dishes with the worst/least/lowest/worst reviews on the site, the specific example here is Hai Duong green bean cake with 2.8 stars out of 5 stars.
With a score of 2.8 stars, the blood pudding is ranked number 2 on the chart.
Meanwhile, the dish ranked 45th at the bottom of the list, beefsteak, received a rating of 3.9 out of 5 stars.
So, whether it's the "last" dish or the "least worst" dish in this ranking, it still scores above average, so it should be understood that these are just dishes that are voted for by fewer people than other Vietnamese dishes on the site.
It should be added that the highest rated Vietnamese dishes on this site are banh mi, beef dipped in vinegar and vermicelli with grilled pork and spring rolls, all with 4.6 stars.
Grilled pork vermicelli with spring rolls, a dish loved by both Vietnamese and foreigners - Photo: NGOC DONG
Not to mention, if we search by country on the site, we will see many Vietnamese dishes that have not even been rated with any stars, such as mixed fruit, lotus root salad, banh te, apple wine, Cai Mon durian, Ben Tre coconut...
Does that mean these things are so bad that they only have... 0 stars?
Even delicious banh troi is criticized.
3,000 votes for 45 dishes, is it trustworthy?
On the left side of each food article on the site, there are three boxes for readers to tick after reading about the dish, including “Have you eaten this dish? Vote”, “Do you want to try it?”, and “Add to wishlist”.
So, there are cases where readers don't know about that dish, so why would they click to vote?
When clicking to vote for a dish, readers will be asked to vote for the number of stars they like, with comments, then add suggestions for where to eat that dish, with photos of the dish...
According to that principle, it can be understood that the more people know about a dish, the higher the possibility of it being voted, commented on, and recommended as a place to eat.
Yes, porridge with offal, Westerners can understand it.
The next point to note is the number of votes. According to TasteAtlas, the list of “45 lowest rated Vietnamese dishes” as of March 16 recorded 4,427 reviews, of which 3,037 were recognized by the system as valid.
These valid reviews are filtered through a series of mechanisms that TasteAtlas claims recognize real users and ignore bot or country-biased reviews, while giving more value to reviews from users that the system recognizes as knowledgeable.
Why do you dislike sticky rice with gac fruit?
So we only understand that the 45 Vietnamese dishes have been voted for by more than 3,000 people. However, to think that those 45 dishes are "criticized", we need to consider other factors such as how long the voting period was, whether the dishes were posted on the page at the same time, how famous the dishes are in the world...
It can be seen that all 45 dishes on the list are familiar to Vietnamese people, but most of them are not too familiar names to many international diners, especially those who have never been to Vietnam.
Foreign visitors take photos of Tet meals at the Vietnamese Tet Festival in Ho Chi Minh City in 2020 - Photo: PHAN BAO
Arouse curiosity with Vietnamese food
Even more positively, this list is more or less contributing to promoting Vietnamese dishes that many foreigners do not know about.
When it comes to Vietnamese food, tourists coming to Vietnam probably know pho, banh mi, banh xeo, bun bo, com tam, goi cuon... but how many people dare to say that many foreigners know what banh khoai Hue is, and how many people who come to Vietnam have eaten xoi gac?
Broken rice, one of the Vietnamese dishes most known to foreigners - Photo: NGOC DONG
Besides, this is just one of the lists of Vietnamese dishes that TasteAtlas has posted, the most recent ones are probably Top 28 Vietnamese Street Food, Top 47 Vietnamese Food, Top 16 Vietnamese Soups...
One notable point is that most of the names of Vietnamese dishes on the site are written in Vietnamese with correct spelling, instead of removing the accents like many other English sites.
Why do you criticize moon cakes?
Each dish comes with a detailed explanation of its origin, time of creation, ingredients, popular areas, popularity, and a map graphic showing the area where the dish is found...
Under most food articles there are also related articles suggesting different versions of that dish if available, for example pho there is rare beef pho, seafood pho, mixed pho, vegetarian pho, stir-fried pho, rolled pho... along with suggestions for places to eat if available.
TasteAtlas follows the motto “to be an encyclopedia of flavors, a world atlas of traditional dishes, local ingredients and authentic restaurants”.
So instead of being “self-conscious”, you can consider this list as a reference for dishes that are not yet popular with foreigners, because TasteAtlas also affirms that their rankings should not be considered the final global conclusion about the dish.
“The aim of these panels is to promote local delicacies, instill pride in traditional dishes, and spark curiosity about foods you’ve never tried,” TasteAtlas states.
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