Malaysian Tourism Announces Food Festival

While the disappearance of Malaysia Airline is still a mystery, and it might hurt the tourist industry of the country, Malaysia is celebrating the tourism year 2014 with various events lined up during the year. There are great variety of musical festivals stealing the show during the month of April (Penang World Music Festival), May(Borneo Jazz Festival), June (Rainforest World Music Festival), July(Morneo Cultural Festival) and December(Penang International Jazz Festival)

The show must go on…

The Director General, Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board, Dato Mirza Mohammad Taiyab, who was speaking at a news conference in Mumbai, said that the travellers would overcome the sense of fear.

During the Q & A session, although there were repeated questions on the safety of the tourists, the talk was still diverted towards what they offer to those interested in travelling to Malaysia.

We were very amused to learn about Shoe festival that is just round the corner; this might interest women who are fetish about shoe collection.

Friend confirms that the shopping is cheaper in Malaysia as compared to India, and informs me of big range of gadgets that she has collected during her trips to the city. There is one Malaysia Mega Sale Carnival during the months, (June to September) and the year-end sale in the month of November that promises incredible discounts and promotional offers.

But the most useful events that interest me is the one that is related to food events and this will be in full swing during the end of the year from October to December. The three-month-long cuisine event is divided into four segments: 

the Malaysia International gourmet Festival, 

The Asian Food Heritage trail, 

the Street Food Festival and 

the Restaurant Food Festival.

Now into its 13^th Successive year, the Malaysia International Gourmet Festival made its debut in September 2001. During this festival, restaurants put aside their competitive differences, share contacts and come together in a collective marketing effort. Rather than bringing the chefs from abroad for a one-off food promotion, the Festival’s unwavering focus is on skills of the world-class chefs already residing in Malaysia and the all-year round of their cuisine and restaurants.

During the year 2012, group of food bloggers were invited for ASEAN Heritage Food Trail in Penang by Ministry of Tourism Malaysia to witness this culinary showcase building bridge and linking culture with Indonesia and Thailand. The challenge for chef from three different countries was to use a common ingredients with innovation cooking method to create delicious dish, the ingredients for appetizers had to include bamboo shoot and fern, main course should have shallots, lemongrass and galangal and dessert was mainly on sago.

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Malaysia team prepared Bamboo Shoot and Fern Kerabu, Delicious Malay style salad with springs of fern, raw bamboo shoots, shredded coconut, local lettuce and spicy seasoning

The Malaysian Street Food Festival gives an opportunity to explore and purchase traditional Malaysian art and craft. Besides street food, there are many added attractions like martial art performances to music shows, traditional dances native to various regions around Malaysia, cultural display and many more

The detailed list of itinerary of fabulous food at Street and Restaurant Food Festival can be found at their site on Malaysia tourism

Four other food bloggers, Sameer Malkani @FoodBloggerAI, Nisha Jha @Cemonde , (a common man dines)@Ajit Balgi and @BhaktisBanter (Just Let it B) were also present at the news conference and together(in between our private tweets) we wished for a special privilege to travel to Malaysia to savor the flavors of their cuisine, preferably a pure vegetarian one.

picture courtesy: Sameer Malkani