Indonesia’s sambal goreng has been ranked top on a list of 50 Best Stir-fry Dishes by experiential travel online guide TasteAtlas.
China’s beef chow fun and stir-fry shrimps are second and third on the table.
But a dish ranked 19, nasi goreng kunyit, a fried rice variety popular in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, was attributed as a Thai dish and left people scratching their heads. *
Not the first time such controversy has happened with TasteAtlas’ list.
Last year, they listed kaya toast as a sandwich from Singapore, which upset quite a few Malaysians, and in 2023, they listed Malaysia’s roti canai as the best-rated bread in the world but listed Singapore eateries as the places to get good roti canai.
Chinese food dominates - taking 16 of the 50 spots - with dishes like Chongqing chicken, salt and pepper squid, kung pao chicken, lemon chicken, and “ants climbing a tree” all making the list.
For the uninitiated, the dish ants climbing a tree is not cooked with ants but fried minced pork with glass vermicelli noodles.
The dish was named because the minced meat looks like ants, and the noodles look like the bark of a tree.
Pad Thai, the Thai noodle stir fry with a sweet, savoury, and sour sauce topped with crushed peanuts, comes up as the top fried noodle dish, taking spot No.5.
Singapore's beef kway teow comes in at No.18, and its black pepper crab and chili crab come in at No.29 and No.36.
Other dishes from South East Asia on the list include Cambodia’s lok lak at No.16, Malaysia’s sambal kangkong at No.33 and nasi goreng kampung at No. 49.
The list: best stir-fry dishes list
*Note: This information was accurate at the time of writing, but TasteAtlas has since corrected it on their website.
