Bangkok declared the Foodiest City
Bangkok : Bangkok has been declared the world’s “Foodiest City” and two of its prominent restaurants have been recognised for their signature dishes, according to the “Tastiest Fast Feasts” Awards recently conferred by the British culinary website Chowzter.
The Awards, which aim to uncover the most delicious fast food served by locally owned establishments with locally sourced food, are based on nominations by local food experts and bloggers. These were narrowed to 60 and tested by a team of Chowzter tasters. They cut across several categories including pizzas, vegetarian, bakery, rice, sandwiches and more.
Bangkok won in the “Foodiest City on Earth” category. In Bangkok, the Phat Thai served at the Phat Thai Thip Samai restaurant won in the “Noodle” category, and the Garlic Fried Chicken at the Polo Fried Chicken restaurant was nominated in the “Tastiest Bird” category.
According to a review in the Asian Wall Street Journal, “In the Foodiest category, Bangkok bared forks with London, Lima, Singapore and Vancouver. But the city known for its vast array of food on the go and some of the freshest, flavour-packed offerings – even if it also wins recognition for the world’s top restaurants – ultimately triumphed.”
Justin Mellot, one of Chowzter’s founding employees, was quoted as saying, “We love that much of Bangkok’s food scene is all about fresh produce, fish, and meat being put together to make amazing dishes sold in the streets by experienced street food magicians. These individual vendors are the unsung heroes of the food world.”
Chowzter’s Bangkok representative Mark Wien, founder of www.eatingthaifood.com wrote, “There are few dishes in Thai cuisine more famous than Phat Thai, and one of the most well-known restaurants for this noodle dish is Phat Thai Thip Samai. They use high quality ingredients and still cook their Phat Thai over high flaming charcoal to give it a lovely smoky flavour. The Phat Thai Haw Kai Kung features soft rice noodles cooked with fat juicy prawns that are then flash wrapped in a paper thin egg coating.”
TAT Governor Thawatchai Arunyik commented, “This is another wonderful honour for Thailand and our concept of ‘Thainess.’ Thai cuisine is famous all over the world, and these awards will give visitors more reason to come and enjoy our enormous range of delicacies. It is always nice to be recognised and appreciated, especially the ‘unsung heroes’ of our tourism industry.”
According to Ministry of Sports and Tourism figures, visitor spending per capita per day in 2012 totalled 4,392 Baht, of which 19% (821 Baht) was on Food & Beverage. In 2011, the expenditure on Food & Beverage was 784 Baht, or 18% of the total.- TAT
