Currying favour: 5 Thai delights spice up top rankings in TasteAtlas List

Petch PetpailinPublished: 11:51, 31 August 2023| Updated: 11:51, 31 August 2023

550 2 minutes read

Currying favour: 5 Thai delights spice up top rankings in TasteAtlas List

Phanaeng curry. Photo by Takeaway via Wikimedia

Thai curry dishes stole the spotlight in this year’s “43 Curry Varieties Ranked from the Worst to the Best,” launched by the food guide website TasteAtlas. Five curry dishes from Thailand are listed in the top ten.

Last year, TasteAtlas declared the northern Thai curry dish Khao Soi as the world’s best soup in the “50 Best Soups in the World.” The foodie platform also ranked Khao Soi and other four Thai curry dishes in its list again this year. The curry dishes included in the top ten are:

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Thai Phanaeng curry
Khao Soi from northern Thailand
Butter chicken from India
Japanese-style curry, also known as Kare
Thai green curry or Kaeng Khiao Wan
Thai massaman curry
Shani paneer from India
Japanese curry called Kare Raisu
Thai sour soup or Kaeng Som
Korma from India

The Thai curry dish, Phanaeng, which leads the list, is a thick red curry that offers salty and sweet flavours together with a scent of herbs. In fifth place came Kaeng Khiao Wan, which is made from green chilli paste and coconut milk. Khiao means green and Wan means sweet, but the dish offers not only a sweet taste but also a salty and spicy one.

Thai curry dishes — Kaeng Khiao Wan | Photo via Pxhere

Massaman curry, in sixth place, is influenced by Malaysian cuisine. The thick curry soup offers a sweet and mildly spicy taste, so this can be a favourite Thai dish for those who prefer a dish that is not too fiery.

Thai curry in TasteAtlas — Massaman curry. Photo by Takeaway via Wikimedia

Surprisingly, Kaeng Som was listed in ninth place even though it was previously ranked 12th among the worst dishes in the world by TasteAtlas in February this year.

Kaeng Som, or Thai sour and spicy fish soup, is one of the most popular dishes among Thai people. The soup is clearer than other curries and cooked differently according to each region of Thailand. The soup can be mixed with a variety of vegetables, such as carrots, green papaya, cauliflower, cabbage, long beans, etc.

Kaeng Som Thai dish — Kaeng Som. Photo by Takeaway via Wikimedia

The CatDumb Facebook page shared the list with the public, drawing a lot of comments from Thai netizens. Many revelled in the glory of Thai flavours conquering the world stage, while others couldn’t resist a playful jab at TasteAtlas for their earlier take on Kaeng Som.

Petch Petpailin

Petpailin, or Petch, is a Thai translator and writer for The Thaiger who focuses on translating breakingThai news stories into English. With a background in field journalism, Petch brings several years of experience to the English News desk at The Thaiger. Before joining The Thaiger, Petch worked as a content writer for several known blogging sites in Bangkok, including Happio and The Smart Local. Her articles have been syndicated by many big publishers in Thailand and internationally, including the Daily Mail, The Sun and the Bangkok Post. She is a news writer who stops reading news on the weekends to spend more time cafe hopping and petting dwarf shrimp! But during office hours, you can find Petch on LinkedIn and you can reach her by email at petch@thethaiger.com.