Image: Visit Sacramento

Living in Jakarta, Indonesia, approximately 9000 miles from Sacramento, I first heard about California’s Capital in 1972 through a joyous song called Sacramento by Middle of the Road  a Scottish pop band.

My first visit to the city was in 2006 for a day-trip lunch in a fine dining restaurant at Old Sacramento.

 Image: Old Sacramento

This year I am excited to go there again as Sacramento has been promoted as America’s Farm-to-Fork Capital. As mentioned in Visit Sacramento,  the city is buzzing with things to taste, see and savor, encompassing farm-fresh restaurants, plentiful farmers’ markets, home-grown breweries, colorful street murals, Gold Rush-era family attractions or a sunset walk along the river.

It is only fitting that the International Food Blogger Conference (IFBC) selected Sacramento for its venue for two years in a row. My first International Food Blogger conference was in 2012 in Portland, Oregon, a few months after this blog was established. It really broadened my horizons on the opportunities of the blogging world, not only in monetary terms but also in the vast activities that can be initiated.

 Image: IFBC

At that time I was so impressed with two of the programs. The first one is Live Blogging with Travel Oregon where attendees had the opportunity to taste, review, and blog or Tweet a delicious variety of Oregon food and beverage products. Each brand had five minutes to serve their product, give a short explanation, and answer questions while the audience blog or Tweet about the product live. After five minutes, a new brand moved to the table to do it all over again. I was struggling to keep up with all the delights in the 90 minutes given to taste and type.

The second one was A Taste of Oregon and Gourmet Fair where in two hours all enjoyed sampling a variety of gourmet goods from producers, trying the cuisines prepared by some of Portland’s best chefs and restaurants, all while discovering goodies in the Gift Suite.

Six months after Portland, inspired by the IFBC 2012, The Omar Niode Foundation organized Patali (Market) Day to celebrate Indonesia’s agriculture, food, and culinary arts. Supported by 30 entities, including culinary connoisseurs from small medium enterprises and food businesses to culinary services and non-government organizations, the event had 300 visitors. Invitees represented producers, consumers, chefs, bloggers, photographers, culinary and hospitality students and the media. Guests at Patali (Market) Day experienced food tasting, tried some snacks, and appreciated Indonesia’s culinary icons in a lunch buffet prepared by The Dharmawangsa Hotel in Jakarta.

I am ecstatic that two of my favorite programs of the IFBC will be up again in Sacramento. The time allotted for Taste of Sacramento & Gift Suite will be two hours and fifteen minutes where participants can enjoy the wine offered, mingle with old friends and find new friends, as well as chat with IFBC partners, those who make the event scrumptiously possible. The finale of IFBC 2017 will be Live food & Wine Blogging. Unfortunately only one hour is available (compared to one and a half hour five years ago). In this limited time there will be 21 food and drink items to taste while asking questions, live blogging, tweeting, and using other social media platforms in real time.

 Image: IFBC

I just could’t wait to have an update of the food blogging world through interactions with the 250 bloggers, writers, social media gurus, and food company representatives who will be in Sacramento.

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Text: Amanda Niode. Images Omar Niode Foundation unless otherwise noted.