What’s your favorite food? If you follow the law of averages, chances are pretty good that you named some sort of noodly pasta dish. According to a poll conducted by Oxfam, the results of which were released this weekend, pasta is by far the world’s favorite food. Oxfam polled 16,000 people throughout 17 countries in April before arriving at the pasta-riffic conclusion.
It makes sense – whether it’s spaghetti or soba, pancit or pad thai, pasta is nation-spanning comfort food at its best. Still, while pasta ran away with the lead it’s not the only food item on the menu. According to the Oxfam poll, the incredibly broad “meat” ranked second while “rice” came in third. Pizza and chicken followed to round out the worldwide top five. From there, the top ten was completed with fish and seafood, vegetables, and -- interestingly enough -- not so much ingredients as three regional cuisines: Chinese, Italian, and Mexican.
SEE RELATED STORIES FROM WDM CONTENT NETWORK
- Ferran Adrià Partners with PepsiCo
- Technology Making the World a Healthier Place
- Frozen Food Gets Real
- CLICK HERE TO READ THE LATEST EDITION OF FOOD & DRINK DIGITAL
Oxfam also noted that things got decidedly more culturally dependent when it came to looking at each country’s results individually. For example, in Kenya the overall favorite was a regional corn porridge called ugali, while Spaniards by and large opted for paella. (In contrast, Oxfam pointed out that, in the United States and the UK, regional favorites lined up pretty well with the worldwide norms.)
Last night I had pasta for dinner – a lemon pepper pappardelle with a homemade sauce chicken and vegetables. It fulfilled four of the world’s ten favorite foods (five if “chicken” also counts as a meat, which I think is fair). Not so coincidentally, it was absolutely delicious.
