From Vietnam, there are three dishes probably the most well-known which are banh mi, bun, and pho. A lesser known dish however is known as ‘cha ruoi’ which translated means deep fried ragworm cakes. Today, it’s a very popular Vietnamese street food however in the past, it was a dish only enjoyed by the richest of the rich. In Vietnam today, you’ll find street vendors creating these deep-fried cakes from ragworms retrieved from the ocean every morning. Although admittedly ragworms can look very intimidating, when mixed with other ingredients and fried, it’s one taste that is absolutely delicious and which cannot be compared to anything else.

Read more: What are Deep Fried Ragworm Cakes and What They Mean to Vietnamese Cuisine

East Asian cuisine is some of the most delicious and satisfying food there is. If you’ve never tried the following foods, they’re well worth a taste. Dishes always have a homemade feel, fresh ingredients, and use little oil. Although Canada and the US have always had a deep love affair with Chinese food, there’s a lot of Vietnamese cuisine and East Asian dishes we think deserve a look.

Thai salad

Read more: 5 Vietnamese Foods and other East Asian Cuisine you absolutely Need to Try

If you’re a student living in any of Canada’s major cities – Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Regina, Toronto, London, Ottawa, Hamilton, Kitchener, or Montreal – chance are you’ve been to a pho restaurant before.

Pho is an amazing Vietnamese soup-like meal that has caught on a big way among Canadians. An authentic Vietnamese dish with a hundred-year history behind it, pho’s an inexpensive, filling, and balanced meal. It also happens to be one of the top ethnic cuisine dishes in the world. Canada’s has had love affairs with things like salsa and tortillas, olive oil and pasta, soy sauced dishes, and a wide range of what were once unfamiliar ethnic dishes. These days, they’re all normalized. What those are today, pho will be in the future. Utterly delicious, there’s nothing like pho.

Read more: Why do University Students love Pho so Much in major Canadian Cities – read here!

In 2011, CNN conducted a survey for the world’s best 50 foods, surveying more than 35,000 votes from people of all cultures, backgrounds, and food preferences. The results were surprising. For example, French dishes did not appear as much as one might think and Asian dishes took up a lot of the top spots. Before we get into where Vietnamese pho ranked on the top 50 list, we’ll provide some insight into the findings that came from this survey.

First off, the big news from this survey is that Asian cuisine took every spot in the top 10. Unfortunately, pho was not one of them. The top ten of the world’s best foods were ranked with rending #1 (Indonesian), nasi goreng #2 (Indonesia), sushi #3 (Japan), tom yam goong #4 (Thailand), pad thai #5 (Thailand), som tam papaya salad #6 (Thailand), dim sum #7 (Hong Kong), ramen #8 (Japan), peking duck #9 (China), and massaman curry #10 (Thailand). The fact that beef rendang hit the top spot on the list is somewhat surprising. For some, it calls into question the whole list! Even so, these are legitimate results from a survey of thousands of people.

Read more: Where Does Authentic Vietnamese Pho end up on the List of the World’s Most Delicious Foods

Vietnamese feasts used for weddings and gatherings are some of the most delicious meals prepared in the popular ethnic cuisine. Customizable in several different ways, there are several components which are maintained in every meal.

A Vietnamese feast is a culturally significant event shared between families and villages, sometimes seating up to 12 people per table. These are big gatherings, needless to say. These feasts are usually prepared for weddings, funerals, and cultural festivals. Instead of serving “ordinary” foods, in a feast, boiled rice is used predominantly among other dishes.

Read more: Getting to Know the Essentials of a Vietnamese Feast Common to Weddings and Gatherings

The world is blessed with some absolutely amazing ethnic dishes and cuisine. An international survey conducted by UK-based YouGov attempted to rank what the world’s most favourite cuisines were. Asking more than 25,000 individuals from 24 countries, the results produced show us some very interesting statistics about food trends, health, and more.

Italian cuisine is the world’s favourite.

Among all the ethnic cuisines out there, Italian proved to be the most favourable with an 84 percent approval rating. Filling out the top five include Chinese cuisine (78 percent approval), Japanese cuisine (71 percent approval), Thai cuisine (70 percent approval), and French cuisine (70 percent approval). As evidenced, all of these cuisines have been widely popularized in the West throughout the past century and contain ingredients or dishes that have been Westernized.

Read more: Where Does Vietnamese Cuisine rank on the World’s Favourite Ethnic Cuisines?