Jakarta - Musical beats from kitchen utensils welcomed visitors as a culinary festival unfolded at Gedung Arsip Nasional, West Jakarta, on Saturday.
With "ancient city" as the festival theme, hundreds of visitors flocked the building‘s garden to enjoy different traditional foods from across the archipelago. Music and dance entertainment accompanied the feast.
The two-day festival, boasting more than 30 food stalls, gave visitors the chance to taste rare Betawi dishes like sayur babanci (a type of beef and vegetable dish) and sambel sang penganten (a type of chilli paste), which are usually only served at traditional Betawi wedding ceremonies.
The festival also offered other foods from across the archipelago like papeda (a staple food made from tapioca flour) from Papua and parts of Maluku, bakupada (a type of fish dish) from Manado, North Sulawesi and many others from Bali, Kalimantan, Sumatra and Java.
A festival visitor, Martha, commented on the papeda she shared with her husband, Triyadi.
"It‘s rather tasteless and the texture is like glue ... so weird, but unique," she said.
Stanley Setya Atmadja, director of Adira Finance, the company that organized the event in cooperation with Jalansutra culinary group, said the festival was aimed at promoting Indonesian culture, especially Indonesian cuisine.
"Foods can unite everyone, regardless of their different cultural backgrounds," he said, adding 50 percent of the event‘s profit would be donated to Increso Foundation, which helps disadvantaged people gain health access.
Adira Finance Deputy General manager Ismu Winarno said his team faced difficulties in the beginning because his company‘s business did not have a food and beverage division.
"Our business doesn‘t deal with food and beverage, but our cooperation with Jalansutra group helped us a lot with that," he told The Jakarta Post, adding his team took quite a long time to research traditional foods and find the right participants for the festival.
Aurora Tambunan, head of Jakarta‘s museum and cultural agency, said she was pleased to know people were still interested in promoting traditional foods.
"One of Jakarta‘s attractions is its cuisine, because people can find foods from all over the country here," she said, thanking the organizer for choosing a heritage building like Gedung Arsip Nasional as the venue.
The deputy head of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), Erry Riyana Hardjapamekas, who was also at the event, said Indonesians should be proud of their traditional cuisine.
"Indonesians often enjoy eating western food because they think it is fancier.
"I think people should be more humble and have more pride in our traditional foods," he said.
The festival not only attracted local visitors but also foreign tourists. Derk Berghout, from Dordrecht, in the Netherlands, visited the festival with his wife.
"We were passing by the street and saw lots of people in the building. We were curious to see what was going on," said Derk, who has been in Indonesia for three weeks.
"We were surprised to find such an event where we could taste different Indonesian cuisine and see different Indonesian cultures. I would like to try all the foods here," he said.
The festival also presented tea and coffee exhibitions, traditional batik clothing and antique toys, furniture and memorabilia.
Daniel Supriyono, an antique shop owner, enthusiastically showed visitors his collection of traditional toys.
"Some of these toys are not produced anymore while others only come out on special occasions in some villages in Central Java," he said.
Source: www.thejakartapost.com (28 November 2007)
