Rendang - World's Best Dish at Number 1

Rendang originally from Sumatra in Indonesia is now a national dish in Indonesia and Malaysia.  It’s a well spiced dish which is essentially a dish of dry yet rather moist curry paste clinging to succulent pieces of meat.  Lamb, beef, chicken or even vegetarian soya meat can be added to rending to serve as a mouth watering dish.

CNN updated (7th Sep2011) its World's 50 Most Delicious Food, and it now lists Rendang as the numero uno of all food dishes.  As quoted from CNNGO:

What are the world's most delicious foods? We thought we knew. Apparently we don't.

Our list of the World's 50 most delicious foods stimulated some impassioned debate about the conspicuous lack of French dishes and the merits of ketchup over mayonnaise.

“Ketchup? Pop Corn? Chips? Plenty of Thai but few Malay food? What about Chinese (Sichuan, Cantonese, etc)? No Brazilian or Argentinean?” queried commenter Max.

Reader LoveFoods wrote, "OMG why are people hating? If you don't like the list, make your own! I love Thai and Japanese foods."

LoveFoods was right. So we threw it open to a vote on a Facebook poll.

And now, after more than 35,000 votes, it appears we got it all wrong. The world’s most delicious food is not Massaman curry, as we suggested, but a meaty, spicy, gingery dish from west Sumatra.

Reader Kamal F Chaniago showed great foresight when he wrote, "Rendang is the best." A clear winner with a loyal following, this beefy dish can now rightfully claim the title of "World's Most Delicious Food."

Beef is slowly simmered with coconut milk and a mixture of lemongrass, galangal, garlic, turmeric, ginger and chilies, then left to stew for a few hours to create this dish of tender, flavorful bovine goodness.

The Indonesian dish is often served at ceremonial occasions and to honored guests. It's not only delicious but also comes with a simple recipe. If you haven't already, go ahead and take reader Isabela Desita's advice: "Rendang should be the first! It's really nice, you should try!"

So go ahead and check out this video from tokchiksincan and the recipe for that pavlovian aroma for dinner.  And when visiting Indonesia, you can get this dish at most local restaurants and street stalls.