MANILA – Filipino food is among the least popular cuisines in the world, according to the results of an international survey recently released online.

The YouGov study, which is based on 25,000 respondents from 24 countries, showed Filipino cuisine tied with Saudi Arabian food with an average popularity of 36 points – trailing ahead of only Finnish and Peruvian cuisine at 32 points each.

• Lechon, kare-kare, crispy pata in 2019 list of world’s best dishes

Unsurprisingly, Filipinos showed the highest preference for their own cuisine at 97%.

The Japanese, on the other hand, had the lowest opinion for Filipino cuisine at 21 points. YouGov noted, however, that Japan was the harshest critic of any nation in the survey, with 23 cuisines scoring less than 50% among respondents.

Italian cuisine emerged as the most popular cuisine in the world with an average score of 84 points, followed by Chinese (78), Japanese (71), and Thai and French food (both 70).