A mini survey conducted by the Omar Niode Foundation last year discovered that a majority of respondents suggested promotion (31.31%) as a way to popularize Indonesian food. Event/Bazaar/Festival (21.21%) can also be an alternative in introducing Indonesian food to a wider audience in Indonesia and abroad.

Events and festivals provide numerous benefits for a community and tourism region including increased visitation and expenditure, reduced seasonality, repeat visitation, heightened regional awareness and word of mouth recommendation. They can also provide the stimulus for additional infrastructure development in the local area and building community pride. Understanding the motivations of event attendees and event exhibitors is important in developing an appropriate event or festival that aligns with community values. 

Therefore, when the Ministry of Tourism announced that Indonesia Traditional Culinary Week will be held at the end of 2014, we were very excited.

Organized in the framework of the 100 days of new administration of the Indonesian Government, the big event took place from 12-14 December 2014 on the ground of a famous landmark, the National Monument in Jakarta.

The main goal of the event was to encourage Local Governments together with relevant stakeholders to build the competitiveness of Indonesian Culinary Travel Destinations and to increase the sense of love and public interests in the archipelago’s traditional culinary delicacies.

The culinary week was also an effort to introduce traditional food of the archipelago to the general public as well as introducing the food of Indonesian provinces through the following series of events:

• Nusantara Culinary Festival: displaying and selling foods from the 34 provinces in Indonesia. Due to some reasons, only 28 provinces sent their representatives. Culinary communities in Jakarta, including the Omar Niode Foundation, presented foods from the remaining 6 provinces.

• Cooking Competition: preparing traditional Indonesian food

• Talk show: themed Indonesian traditional culinary delicacies, carried out by associations and culinary communities such as Indonesian Culinary Association, Academy of Gastronomy Indonesia, Aku Cinta Masakan Indonesia (I Love Indonesian cuisine), Omar Niode Foundation, and the Young Chef Club Indonesia.

• Cooking Demo: featuring Junior MasterChefs Indonesia who cooked traditional Indonesian foods. Hopefully, the Junior Masterchefs will encourage people to learn to cook traditional Indonesian food.

• Entertainment, Featuring music and traditional dances.

During the three-day event, Omar Niode Foundation promoted and sold the following Gorontalo Cuisines prepared by Biko Mointi Boekoesoe of Talaga Cookery:

• Cara Isi (savory custard cake) is round, has a soft texture and taste like chicken ragout. It is perfect for an appetizer.
• Binthe Biluhuta (traditional Gorontalo corn soup) made of corn, coconut and shrimp, sprinkled with scallions, fried onion, lime, chili and basil to taste. According to the visitors who sampled this food, binthe biluhuta is fresh and healthy.
• TobuU, made of steamed coconut milk, shredded young coconut, walnut and palm sugar in boat shaped banana leaf. TobuU was the favorite among visitors due to its unique shape, creamy texture and sweet taste.
• Srikaya Bakar (sponge cake) is light green in color, has a pandan aroma with chopped peanuts on top. Srikaya bakar is a harmony of tastes with its sweet and savory characters.

It was really a surprise when the new Minister of Tourism, Dr. Ir. Arief Yahya MSc. stopped by our booth. Dian Anggraini, the Foundation’s Program Manager had a chance to explain about the Foundation activities and what were on sale. She also presented a post card with binthe biluhuta recipe and a booklet published by Omar Niode Foundation: Gorontalo – The Charms of Fauna, Flora and Food Travel. 

Swan Kumarga, the owner of Dapur Solo Catering Service and restaurant chain accompanied by Desi Trisnawati, the first female Master Chef Indonesia had a chance to taste Binthe Biluhuta. The duo just established a new business, Desi & Swan Signature Catering.

What we found amazing was children’s acceptance of Gorontalo food that must be new to them. They especially like the sweet and creamy tobuU. Young Master Chef Indonesia, Mala, visited our booth where we gave her the binthe biluhuta post card with a recipe, hoping that she will try cooking the dish at home and put good words to her friends.

On the last day of the event Dian Anggraini, our Program Manager took the center stage and talked with a theme: Getting to know Gorontalo food, followed by the finale of our participation, Binthe Biluhuta cooking demo, by Biko Mointi Boekoesoe.

It helped that our booth is located not far from the center stage.

To enliven the event Ipul Soedibjoe an up and coming young MC invited the audience to taste Binthe Biluhuta and provide souvenirs to those who asked and wanted to know more about Gorontalo food.

Nearing the end of the presentation we distributed postcards with a picture and recipe of Binthe Biluhuta for visitors.

It is our sincerest hope that the first Indonesia Traditional Culinary Week would encourage local governments to actively explore food tourism potential of their respective regions and to introduce the culinary riches of the Indonesian archipelago to domestic and international tourists.

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Images:

Cover: Santi Sherad. All others: Omar Niode Foundation