Ranking Cuisines

It has been a while since I randomly ranked something, so I am inspired by both Tom Ricks's ranking of cuisines and my recent travel to rank cuisines.  My key criteria here are tasty and variety.

1. Italian--so very close with #2, but tie breaker goes to inspiration for American pizza and steak sandwiches
2. Chinese
3. Japanese--despite the fact that I am not a fan of sushi, I found Japanese cuisine to have tremendous variety and tasty stuff across a wide spectrum.  All of the variations of Yakitori alone would put Japan in the top ten .
4. Mexican
5. French
6. Indonesian--I have it so rarely that I value it more than the others below.
7. Vietnamese
8. Spanish--more tapas, more better.
9. Indian--I got some pushback for putting this further down my list.  Naan, by itself, could elevate Indian food.  But I have realized that besides samosas, bhaji and a few other appetizers, I am not a huge fan.
10. Greek American.  Had to revise as once a friend mentioned barbecue, that and fried chicken and other stuff, and American made the list despite being so great mostly because it steals from everyone else (and often improves like pizza).

Honorable Mention: Middle Eastern/Turkish (I need more exposure, but conditions in Turkey are unlikely to let that happen any time soon), German (underrated, plus that whole beer thing), Ethiopian (have only had it a few times but very interesting/tasty), Korean, Thai.

My trip to Brazil next month may shake things up a bit.