Rhelyn Harder
- Tom Pepinsky was fired up after ranking Filipino cuisine at the bottom of the list among Southeast Asian cuisine
- Pepinsky claimed that his ranking was “objectively correct” as he excluded regional and ethnic sub-cuisines
- Filipinos strike out comments and criticized the ranking
A professor at Cornell University, named Tom Pepinsky, was fired up after ranking Filipino cuisine at the bottom of the list among Southeast Asian cuisine.
On his Twitter post, Vietnamese was the best cuisine in the region followed by Lao, Singaporean, Malaysian, Thai, Burmese, Indonesian, Cambodian, Timorese, and lastly the “Philippines.”
Southeast Asian national cuisines, ranked***
1. Vietnamese
2. Lao
3. Singaporean/Malaysian
4. Thai
5. Burmese
6. Indonesian
7. Cambodian
8. Timorese
9. Philippine— Tom Pepinsky (@TomPepinsky) May 4, 2019
Pepinsky claimed that his ranking was “objectively correct” as he excluded regional and ethnic sub-cuisines. However, he did not detail and show the criteria he used to score and rank the national cuisines which made Filipinos reacted negatively.
*** list is objectively correct, but ignores regional and ethnic sub-cuisines
— Tom Pepinsky (@TomPepinsky) May 4, 2019
On the professor’s threads, Filipinos struck out comments and criticized the ranking.
Honest question: is this meant to be a joke, or I have I missed something? How on earth does anyone ‘objectively’ rank national cuisines? Is this based on some questionable statistics on number of dishes consumed or something? Or do you just actually mean subjectively? Confused.
— Chris Wotton (@chriswotton) May 5, 2019
"objective"?????? by what plastic ruler???? pic.twitter.com/0rM4rMGgqP
— Alfred (@alfredpng) May 5, 2019
Bold of you to assume that any of these people cook for you and compete for your approval. How does ranking our cuisines make sense when we don't even order Thai, Filipino, Vietnamese, etc for the same reasons? pic.twitter.com/vH111Mrk1M
— A$AP ROCKY REYES HAIRCUTTERS (@Punongbayan_) May 5, 2019
But some white netizens agree and supported the questionable rankings and one of them is Jakarta-based activist and writer Kate Walton who directly stated that Filipino food is “the worst in the region.”
https://twitter.com/waltonkate/status/1124859240353419264
Walton had a separate thread in a group called Jakarta Feminist where she claimed that Filipino food is “bland.”
https://twitter.com/waltonkate/status/1125056476437835776
Walton also received backlash from Filipinos, like Professor Pepinsky.
calling it the worst but not specifying which dish you've tried???? just like indonesia, the philippines is an archipelago. There are hundreds, even thousands of dishes you can call Filipino, but do not belong to the same ethnic group,,, anyone correct me if im wrong
— CERSEI RONAN (@kakarroach) May 5, 2019
https://twitter.com/Kassierola/status/1125062888010334209
Hi. The problem is not your preference but the way you made a sweeping generalization when you can't even name the Filipino food you've tried. Westerners didn't colonize our lands in search for spices for you to call it "bland." You probably don't see this bc of your privilege.
— Lauren B. @ Cosmania (@laurenbaldoart) May 5, 2019
In her follow-up tweet, she was forced to apologize by saying her comment was “poorly-phrased” but then she refused to delete her original tweet telling people she was already apologizing, as she said “there’s not much else I can do.”
Dear Filipinos: I apologise for offending you. My comment was about food preferences and poorly-phrased. What I meant was that Filipino food is my least favourite in the region. I apologise for my bad wording.
— Kate Walton (@waltonkate) May 6, 2019
I'm not going to delete the main tweets because then I'll be accused of hiding. I won't be engaging any more on this topic, though. I've apologised and there's not much else I can do. Cheers.
— Kate Walton (@waltonkate) May 6, 2019
After all these comments, a Filipino netizen named Melisandre De Rossi stood up and pointed out the historical fact that Westerners literally pillaged the Philippines for spices.
LMAO your people literally pillaged our part of the world for spices. This stupid-ass take just goes to show how little you know of our region, yet you have the audacity to hierarchize cuisines like we even shared a single flavor profile.
— A$AP ROCKY REYES HAIRCUTTERS (@Punongbayan_) May 5, 2019
Just to remind you about your cuisine, your people invented aspic. Nobody asked for your patronizing outsider opinion, colonizer. You can sod off with your kale and avocado sandwiches.
— A$AP ROCKY REYES HAIRCUTTERS (@Punongbayan_) May 5, 2019
