Fam, I so pissed off.
Like I'm so mad. I've never been so mad.
You guys watch my videos, I'm usually not this mad.
But recently, TasteAtlas, I don't know they're a magazine, I don't know what they are.
They lost all credibility.
They ranked southeast Asian food,
and they put nasi lemak, Singapore chili crab as just okay.
Look. Look at this.
Just okay, all right? And then...
Okay, fine. Fine. If you want to say they're just okay, fine. Let's see what's number one.
Lumpia.
Lumpia is number one.
Like... My Filipino friends out there, I love you guys.
Filipino food is great. Lumpia is awesome. I eat that. I eat like so many of it.
But like...
Nasi lemak, Singapore chili crab, pad thai is lower. Satay is lower.
Pho. Vietnamese pho is lower than lumpia.
So I had to do something about it.
We went out and we got all the famous southeast Asian dishes.
We're gonna taste test them in front of you
and we'll rank them and tell you which is the best and which is the worst.
All right, fam. This is it, all right.
We got Cindy here, who is a Singaporean,
so it's going to be unbiased.
We're going to use all scores together.
We're going to taste each of this food
and then let you know what we think about it and at the end we'll give you a rating of everything.
All right?
Okay, what do we have for the first dish?
All right, so first stop is we're traveling to Thailand
and trying out the national dish which is pad thai.
This one's pad thai with shrimp.
Great.
Okay, gotta get a little bit of that shrimp.
Okay, so I personally really enjoyed it.
I think that this is something that you could introduce to anyone and they'll love it.
It's not too sweet, not too salty, not really spicy but still very flavorful.
I think it's just kind of a perfect mix of everything.
Thumbs up. Thumbs up, for sure.
Next dish from Thailand is tom yum soup.
And this one has chicken as the protein.
The smell of it is like already like getting to like my...
Yeah, it's making me salivating. Yeah.
It kinda gets into.. I wanna get a big piece of chicken.. Kinda gets into your sinuses
Wow.
Very very flavorful.
Oh my gosh. It's like sweet, sour, salty, umami, everything.
It's a little bit of everything.
I would say, personally, for me, this is too salty for my taste.
I tend to not like my food as salty
So this is...
It's got that sour, sweetness going on but that saltiness overpowers it. For me, personally.
Okay, I think this is like literally perfect in every sense.
It's so good. Yeah, it's so good.
American likes things less salty, I guess.
So is it thumbs up for you guys?
Thumbs up. A little bit to the side. Not quite all the way. Okay. A little bit there.
I think next up we'll be flying to my home country.
We are flying to Malaysia. Malaysia.
The national dish there... National dish of Malaysia... is nasi lemak. Nasi lemak.
I'm really excited about this. This is one of my favorite.
I will do my very best to be unbiased, but...
In my mind, looking at all this, this is already like my favorite.
But I'll try my best. That's not being unbiased.
Oh, it's so hard not to be biased right now.
But the flavor profile here, it's just...
absolutely incredible because you have just that sweetness from the coconut.
You have that spiciness from the sambal.
Cool down with the cucumber.
The fattiness of the peanuts and that saltiness too. The egg, it's anchovy. Everything is perfect.
Yeah.
Oh my gosh.
There's food in my mouth.
You go first.
Yeah, the coconut rice is really really flavorful and so is the sambal, right?
I usually like mine a little bit sweeter.
I think it's usually a little sweeter in Singapore
but this is really good.
Fam, this is so good.
The fact that TasteAtlas put this an okay like blows my mind.
Like how? Like come on, guys.
So mad. So mad with that.
Anyway, we gotta move on.
Okay, move on. Move on. What else do we have from Malaysia?
Also from Malaysia, we have some roti canai (flatbread). Roti canai (flatbread).
It's flaky.
Unfortunately, we don't have a curry to go with it today,
so we'll just taste it as it is.
Oh, when I said roti canai the kids got excited.
They popped up. They popped up from nowhere behind the camera.
Okay, go ahead guys.
I think it's amazing on its own.
You're right.
Just on its own, it's just so like that like almost like a fried bread but yeah.
Big thumbs up for this one.
Rachel, where are we flying to next?
All right, grab your passports. We are flying to Vietnam. Vietnam.
And we are getting some delicious pho, the national dish there.
Okay.
Visually, it does not look very good.
It looks like like a clogged toilet or something.
It doesn't look visually appealing
but I've had pho before and I love it.
It's really good.
Okay, go. You want to dig in? Yes.
This one's beef flavored. Beef. Beef. Beef pho.
That's so good.
I love like healing food and to me this is like a very healing food
Like if I'm sick or it's like a rainy day which it is today, it's rainy, like pho is literally like the perfect meal.
As soon as I took a bite, it's just, "ahhh". It's like... It's like wearing a warm blanket.
It's like... Yeah, sick day meal and then like on a cold day, this is like perfect.
Like heat you up. It's very very comforting.
Yeah. Comfort food in its finest right and it tastes so good.
Yeah, the soup going down your throat and then warming up your belly.
That's perfect for a rainy day.
Totally. Definitely a big thumbs up in my book.
All right, Rach. What do we have next?
Okay, also from the beautiful land of Vietnam, we have some delicious spring rolls.
Spring rolls. With a... What kind of sauce is this?
I have no idea.
It looks kind of bland just by itself.
Visually, just looks like you know uncooked which I don't think much of it is.
I like it.
There's nothing really special about this to me though.
It's good.
Yeah, I think that is a blend of hoisin sauce and peanut sauce.
And definitely brings out the flavor of everything.
Yeah. Once you put the sauce.
Yeah, Cindy's right.
Like without the sauce, this thing cannot survive.
The sauce like really carries this dish through.
It's very healthy.
It's not deep fried.
It may have just steamed it or something. I don't know but it's very...
It's very calm to your body. It's not so harsh.
Like a lot of like fried foods and stuff like that.
So good. Yeah.
Next, we are going to go to the Philippines
and we're going to start with their national dish of some chicken adobo.
It also came with these noodle things. I don't know what they are.
Pancit? Pancit. Yeah, pancit.
It's like noodles and bihun and then with some steamed rice obviously.
Very fatty.
Very sweet.
It was sweeter than I expected actually.
Lots of flavor. Like lots and lots of flavor.
I think it's like it's good but it's not mind-blowingly good.
The flavor is not very complex.
It's very straightforward.
Yeah, I get what you're saying. I feel like I could maybe even cook this one potentially.
Maybe, I don't know
You could. You could.
I think I'm more used to adobo with more vinegar.
So this is a little sweet for my taste buds.
I'll give it like a thumbs like almost to the side.
I'd eat it again.
But I don't think I'm gonna like seek it out
And then also from the Philippines, we have...
From the Philippines, this TasteAtlas, you made this number one.
Number one.
These magic little fried logs.
We've had lots of this before.
Lumpia is good.
It's never great, okay?
But you know what?
I don't think I've ever had a lumpia. Yeah, it's never been like horrible.
Can't go wrong with lumpia.
It's just like meat inside wrapped around like a spring roll and deep-fried.
Anything deep-fried is gonna be good.
Anything deep-fried is good. That's the motto of Americans actually.
It's good.
I really feel like.. what its called? Taste Atlas? Is that what its called?
The fact that they were comparing this to dishes doesn't really make sense to me.
It's good, but my mind is not blown.
I'll still give it a thumbs up.
Oh, yeah. For sure. Yeah, it's good. For sure.
Now we are going up to Burma
and trying out their national dish which is called...
I hope I'm saying that right. Mohinga? Mohinga.
I've never heard of it. I guess it's a catfish.
Catfish curry?
Curry. Catfish curry. Yeah.
I've never had it before.
I've never either.
But you know what? I love trying new food.
I don't even know what this thing is.
There's a lot of different things here.
There's a lot going on.
There's like lentils, maybe? Lentils. Noodles.
There's some egg in there.
There's some noodles.
It looks spicy.
There's like fried onions.
Initial thoughts, it's not spicy at all.
Looking at it, it looked like it should have been like really spicy. Just that kind of colour.
But to me, it's not spicy. It's...
I feel like a broken record.
Very salty.
But I think part of that is the fishiness to it.
No part of it. It is because you're white. Everything's salty.
Because I haven't burned off my taste buds like you have.
Because you don't flavor your food since young.
Very flavorful.
It has a very... There's a lot going on. Very complex. Very unique.
It's like we need to take like a second bite to really form our thoughts about this
Very interesting.
Yeah, I've never had anything like this before.
This very unique flavor.
I love the fishiness.
So to wrap this up, I like this.
I actually kind of like it a lot.
I think it's pretty good.
Again, I don't think it's like outstanding but it's on the greater side.
More than like good.
I'd eat this again, for sure. Yeah, I'll definitely eat this again. I'll seek this out.
Yeah, thumbs up.
And then also from Burma, we have the very famous tea leaf salad.
We're supposed to mix it, though.
Cindy, you want to do the honours? Sure.
Oh, Cindy is the expert here.
Look at this.
I watched them do it many times.
That's a very flavorful salad.
If all salads taste like this, I'd eat more salad.
I'm serious. This is good.
I can go as far as say like this is probably like the best salad I've ever had.
Ever? Mm-hmm.
Big thumbs up. Double thumbs up.
All right, guys. Pack your bags. We're heading out.
To Cindy's homeland. Yeay.
Singapore.
And Cindy, what's Singapore's national dish?
Chili crab. Singapore chili crab. Singapore chili crab.
Look at that beauty.
I think it usually comes in like actual crabs, right?
Yeah. This is like... This is way less work.
Thank you Satay by the Bay. You guys like hook this up with this.
Appreciate it because it's very very difficult to get Singapore chili crab in America.
That is good.
Good. It's a very complex dish.
It's less spicy.
It's more on the sweeter side.
I wouldn't say it's comfort food. I'd say it's luxury food.
It's like... Yeah. It's like I'm bawling. I got my payday, you know. I go have some Singapore chili crab.
It tastes just like home.
Does it, really? It does.
Wow. Big thumbs up for me.
Two thumbs up.
Also from Singapore, we have the very famous satay.
But is satay really Singaporean food or is it a Malaysian food?
Come on. Let's be real.
Malaysia.
No, Singapore.
Okay, anyway, this one is made by Ellie from Satay by the Bay.
She's Singaporean, so we're calling this a Singaporean meal, all right?
Don't get me wrong, I love the chili crab but this... Oh, man.
The flavor profile in this satay is so good.
Yeah, it's XL size to cater to the American crowd.
But, yeah. Same flavor.
The peanut sauce is amazing. A little bit crunchy.
And the rice cakes, everything we get are so good.
Give me XL, XS whatever size, I'm gonna take it. I'm gonna eat that.
Two thumbs up.
All right, last country on our little food tour travel, we're gonna go all the way to Indonesia.
So first we have some keropok (fish cracker)? Is that how you say it. Keropok. Keropok.
So this one is fish keropok (fish cracker).
We've got some chili sauce to go with it.
Dip dip in that.
Can you tell we have children? We call things dip dip now.
This honestly is not a fair comparison with all that meals.
Those are really complex full meals.
This is more of a snack, you know.
So it's not really... I'm not doing justice to it, right?
It's just... It's definitely going to be low in the ranking
but more so because it's a snack. The type of food it is.
But, for what it is as a snack, it's brilliant.
I could eat this way more than I can eat popcorn.
I go, like... Yes. You can eat it. Eat it. Eat it. It is so good.
And for a final dish, a favorite of mine...
Nasi goreng Indonesia.
All right.
Oh, look at that egg on top. That's beautiful.
That's a perfect egg
Oh my gosh.
So this is nice because you know you got your fried egg on top of like fried rice
and then you got a side of like some cucumbers.
Smells very good.
I wish you guys can smell what I'm smelling right now.
I cook a ton of nasi goreng and fried rice in the Kumaar household.
This just tastes like 50% of our meals.
Honestly, it's like the perfect level of everything.
The perfect spice. The perfect saltiness. The perfect...
just that little bit of sweetness and umami flavor. It's just...
I don't know.
Again, one of those foods that I would be able to almost give this to anyone.
Yeah. And have them enjoy it thoroughly.
I really love the shallots in there
because we don't put shallots in the Singapore fried rice.
So that is unique for me and I love that flavor.
All right, guys. It's scoring time.
How do we do it?
Okay, so what we did was each one of us individually, we didn't check it with the other one,
scored it ourselves in a score of 1 to 5.
Then, we put our scores together to get an average for that specific food.
And based on this average, we came up with our ranking.
From...
We're gonna share it from the worst to the best.
Number one.
You guys already know what it is.
Nasi lemak.
Unbiased. Unbiased.
Guys, I mean yes, I scored it really high and I...
To be really honest with you, before this started, I thought maybe Rachel and Cindy
might pull the score down
but you know what after tasting it... I just pulled tom yum down.
Nasi lemak is still king, guys.
Like it has a combination of everything you want in a hearty meal.
You can have it for breakfast, lunch, dinner. Got everything. What else do you want?
But, anyway, that's our ranking.
Let us know what you guys think.
Did we miss something?
Did we miss the ranking?
Let us know down in the comment below.
We want to hear from you.
The champion of southeast Asian food is nasi lemak. And Singapore. Singapore. Yeah, Singapore too.
Singapore second. Okay.
Sounds all right. Sounds about right.
All right, thanks for watching, guys.
If you haven't already done it, don't forget to subscribe.
Hit the like button.
I hope to see you in the next one, alright?
Bye. Bye.