Bland, soggy slop or scratch-cooked chilli and pancakes? The best and worst hospital food around the world – in pictures

From Kenya to Brazil, patients need tasty, nutritious food more than most – so which countries do it best?

• ‘We have learned to have low expectations’: why is UK hospital food so bad?

One of the best meals of my life was the platter of food that I ate in a Taipei hospital after I gave birth to my son last year. There was tofu braised in five-spice, shiitake mushrooms, steamed cauliflower with diced carrot, and sauteed spinach with ginger. It was paired with plenty of liquid: rice porridge, black sesame soup, and vegetable broth peppered with daikon.