Global Poll Reveals Pasta As The World's Favorite Food

Your favorite food in the world is probably something exciting, distinctive, tasty. Maybe a dish that smacks of your cultural heritage or a dish that tastes like your childhood. It might be the porterhouse steak you ate with your grandparents the night of your college graduation; it might be the green papaya salad you once ate visiting your cousin in Portland.

But if you poll 16,000 people in 17 countries around the world, as aid NGO Oxfam did in mid-April, the law of large numbers starts to kick in. Hence the today's announcement of the world's favorite food: pasta. Second and third place were the equally thrilling "meat" and "rice." The global choices mirrored those of the US and UK quite closely, though some individual countries went zestier. The favorite food of Kenya was a maize porridge called ugali; Spaniards chose national rice dish paella. The strangest element of the survey results, though, may be the inclusion of ethnic categories alongside individual dishes—including "Italian." At 9th, it held up surprisingly well, considering it had been stripped, by the terms of the survey, of both pizza and pasta.

Here's the full list of the world's favorite foods:

1. Pasta
2. Meat
3. Rice
4. Pizza
5. Chicken
6. Fish and seafood
7. Vegetables
8. Chinese
9. Italian
10. Mexican

Comments

[Folk Hero]

03:44 PM on 06/21/2011

Soul food!

[Mr Crabs]

11:31 PM on 06/20/2011

The food list should be individual items, not a style. Come on, meat? Chinese?

It's like asking what's your favorite food? I like food. I think that about covers it.

[IsabelRingin]

11:05 AM on 06/20/2011

I don't think I have a favorite food. I like too many things. Many of them equally. If I was on death row, and they asked me what I wanted for my last meal, I'd be stumped. But I don't think I'd have much appetite anyway, so whatever...

[ConGrpThink]

10:32 AM on 06/20/2011

Can anyone take stab at what Chris Christie's favorite food is?

[ARMANDO DE LA ROSA]

03:41 PM on 06/21/2011

All of the above.

[ArtsyJane]

09:07 AM on 06/19/2011

Wow, who wrote this list? It's nonsensical.

[ArtsyJane]

09:02 AM on 06/19/2011

Love pasta!

[spitfiredd]

07:56 AM on 06/19/2011

I didn't know that Chinese, Italian and Mexican were a food?!

[topgearrt]

08:07 AM on 06/19/2011

yes it is,you can tell from all the meat and veggies in it....

[ArtsyJane]

09:03 AM on 06/19/2011

I know. And when you consider that "Pasta" and "Pizza" are both Italian dishes, number 1 and number 4 also need to be named "Italian."

[invirginia]

10:25 AM on 06/20/2011

pasta actually originated in China

[shhurtjr]

07:56 AM on 06/19/2011

I like Chinese food, as long as I know what it is.

[ArtsyJane]

01:06 PM on 06/20/2011

If you stick with vegetables, you're probably on the safe side.

[mlaiuppa]

06:54 AM on 06/19/2011

Sorry, but no.

Almost every culture around the world makes some sort of bread.

Not so pasta.

[jsarets]

08:39 AM on 06/19/2011

Not really. Breads are common in regions where wheat in grown. It's difficult to make bread from rice or corn because it they don't have gluten to contain the CO2 from yeast fermentation. It's still difficult for modern food scientists to formulate rice breads, and corn breads only became common after the advent of baking power for chemical leavening. Also most breads require ovens, which were historically uncommon in many parts of the world.

The most universal foods are porridges and soups.

[mlaiuppa]

03:07 PM on 06/19/2011

There are bread-like foods that function as bread. In African, in India and even in Asia. They may be flat or dumpling-like. But they are breads. They can be cooked over the fire on a grid or griddle. Breads to not require ovens. Tortillas use no leavening but are classified as breads.

Yes, soups, stews and porridges are also universal.

But I still object to pasta.

[ArtsyJane]

09:04 AM on 06/19/2011

No bread in Asia.

[Barack Must Go]

02:16 AM on 06/19/2011

This dismal list is grounds for the United States to withdraw from the United Nations while having all remaining members reps leave our country immediately.

Rice...meat? No wonder the rest of the world hates our guts.

[Peter Burbank]

04:20 AM on 06/19/2011

Barack must stay! Four more years of Peace! Everyone is invited to my house for Burgers to celebrate! ... No more Republicans in The White House ... The last one left a horrible mess!

[Dora The explorer]

07:54 AM on 06/19/2011

Four more years of PEACE? Evidently Peter Burbank, the favorite 'food' in your shack must be marijuana. It's time to put down the bong 'Head' master.

[Peter Burbank]

08:51 AM on 06/19/2011

I think your the one with a Head full of MJ ... just think .... no WTC bombing, no invading countries that were of no threat to us! ... THIS PRESIDENT REALLY HAS KEPT US SAFE! not like that BS you guys shoveled when GWB was running us into the ground. Republicans have made Lousy Presidents, Democrats ... Good Ones ... and you know it!

[Peter Burbank]

01:29 AM on 06/19/2011

Hamburger is the greatest food in the world. Grilled, toasted bun, lettuce, tomato, onion and swiss or cheddar .... heaven!

[ArtsyJane]

09:06 AM on 06/19/2011

I hate the white processed dough of the bun. That's why I don't eat hamburgers very often. If they started using whole wheat or whole grain buns, that would change everything.

[tsudopnem]

10:41 AM on 06/19/2011

I bake my own buns.

[Ozark Homesteader]

02:41 PM on 06/19/2011

"They" do. Rudy's Organic 100% Whole Wheat. We like them with turkey burgers, veggie burgers, bbq chicken . . . .

I make buns too: http://ozarkhomesteader.wordpress.com/2009/07/12/quick-and-easy-buns-for-barbeque/

[knezrad]

12:39 AM on 06/19/2011

to quote Hetalia the politically incorrect web comic-"Make pasta, not war!"

[isisreptiles]

10:39 PM on 06/18/2011

I'm really surprised to see pasta at the top of list. It's OK but I don't love it. Maybe because I'm Italian and ate so much of it growing up. Thai food would be at the top of MY list.

[NightShayde]

12:48 AM on 06/19/2011

Personally, I'm a HUGE fan of Indian food myself. :) Mexican secondly (No, not the "Taco Bell" kind, but as authentic as I can find up here in the NE..it's tough), and also Thai.

I have a bit of Italian in my Euromutt genes, and, quite honestly, it's my least favorite type of cuisine.

[Dora The explorer]

08:00 AM on 06/19/2011

Nice choices NightShayde. I am always exploring and experimenting in my kitchen for something new and exciting in those three culinary camps. While some Italian is nice, I think it's been way overdone over the years. Give me something hot and spicy and off the beaten path and I'm a truly happy camper. Cheers!

[zame123]

10:13 PM on 06/18/2011

Am I the only person who thinks this list was written by a Kindergartener? So chicken, seafood and fish (is fish not seafood?) are not meat? Also do we eat the Chinese and Italian people, or do they mean Chinese and Italian food like pasta and pizza (again already listed). At best the person that wrote this was high. It makes no sense, and it could have been a very interesting list. Looks like the editors were asleep on the job on this one. High quality reporting....

[undrgrndgirl]

10:31 PM on 06/18/2011

no, you're not the only one :)
i thought the same thing...none of them are very specific...

[jonsane]

11:35 PM on 06/18/2011

i agree!

[Ray II]

09:59 PM on 06/18/2011

Imagine where Pizza would be on the list if the Chinese,the Mexicans and the Italians knew about it.

[undrgrndgirl]

10:32 PM on 06/18/2011

what do you mean IF the ITALIANS knew about it?? sigh, i really hope you were being sarcastic.

[earlykuh]

10:54 PM on 06/18/2011

People in Italy are not as familiar with pizza. When I was in Italy, I was told that was a American dish, because Americans invented it

[Ray II]

11:27 PM on 06/18/2011

Have you ever been to Italy?How many places that sell pizza did you see?