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The much-awaited end-of-year lists by the travel guide TasteAtlas are out and the most recent ones celebrate Indian culinary heritage like none other! In the list of a ‘100 Best Food Cities in the World,’ Mumbai featured in the fifth position—making it the only Indian city to be part of the top 10. Amritsar ranked 48th—thus putting two Indian cities within the top 50 ranks. Following this, the cities of New Delhi and Hyderabad ranked 53rd and 54th respectively while Kolkata and Chennai occupied 73rd and 93rd ranks in the full list. As a follow-up to this global list, they also released a list of ‘100 Best Food Regions in the World’ where all of Southern India was the only Indian area to feature in the top 50 at the 40th rank.
West Bengal, Maharashtra and Kerala made it to the subsequent top 100 at positions 73, 76 and 97. What ran as a common thread between both lists was that it showcased the diversity of Indian cuisine by covering a significant yet distinct geography—places that are entirely different from one another in their food culture and cooking. Mumbai’s bustling street food culture comprising of iconic dishes like the vada pav, pav bhaji, chaat preparations and other Udupi, Gujarati fare has always been a melting pot of flavours that have been welcomed into its existing fabric. Although Italy continues to dominate the global spotlight for food, India has emerged as quite the competition to culinary destinations like Japan and South America.
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India also became one of the 15 destinations to feature on the travel guide’s ‘Top 15 Best Cuisines in the World’ list, ranking 13 flanked by Serbia and Poland on ranks 12 and 14. With more and more Indian cuisines making a foray into mainstream dining establishments, the awareness surrounding the vibrant flavours, traditional cooking techniques and stories surrounding the origins of dishes make it a great time for Indian food in the spotlight. TasteAtlas also highlighted a few must-have preparations which included flatbreads such as butter garlic naan, Amritsari kulcha, parotta as well as the Gujarati snack muthia and the dry spice blend of garam masala.
