Eat and be merry, the Asean way
With names like khao kluk kapi and shwee kyi, Asean food may sound alien but foodies everywhere can expect a tasty adventure.
MOVE aside, Thailand. Despite it being a much loved gastronomic paradise, its regional neighbours want a share of the spotlight too.
The Asean Culinary Festival 2018 held in Seoul was a case in point. All the representatives of the 10 Asean countries proudly showed off their dishes and desserts to tantalise the mostly Korean crowd.
Just a sample: There was chicken porridge from Indonesia; bringhe (sticky rice with meat and seafood) from the Philippines, sack kor ang jangkak (rice with grilled beef skewers) from Cambodia, nan gyi thoke (rice noodle salad) from Myanmar, and nasi katok (think ketuk or knock) from Brunei, so named because in the old days, customers would knock on the window of the eatery if they wanted to be served.
All the main dishes featured rice, a theme picked by the Asean-Korea Centre (AKC), which has been organising the food fest since 2016.
Last year, coffee played the starring role as AKC wanted to show the difference in beans and flavour found among the countries.
According to the AKC, the choice of rice as the main ingredient in this year’s festival was to allow visitors to have a glimpse of how this food staple has been modified by the 10 Asean countries, all of which have different cultural practices and societal norms.
This time round, Singapore presented laksa (eye roll, please) and pandan cake (huh?) as dessert.
And whether by coincidence or a healthy dose of kimchi diplomacy, the Korean organiser placed the Malaysian and Singaporean booths far apart from one another, thus averting any possible food war!
Instead, Malaysia’s booth was positioned next to Indonesia and Brunei under the halal category.
Malaysia’s participation in this year’s fourday festival, which ended on Dec 1, was led by chef Datuk Ismail Ahmad, 58.
He presented nasi tomato and ayam masak merah, plus seri muka (glutinous rice steamed with coconut milk) as the sweet offering.
Chef Ismail also had the honour of conducting a live cooking show on stage with 38-year-old Lee Won-il, the Korean chef of the popular TV show Please Take Care Of My Refrigerator.
“It’s my third time coming to this festival,” says Ismail, who was invited through Tourism Malaysia which had appointed him one of their tourism ambassadors.
From his observation, he says that Malaysian food is quite popular among Koreans, especially the younger set. He also finds it easy to source for halal products and ingredients in Seoul, citing as an example that serai (lemongrass) is available in the Itaewon neighbourhood.
To him, Malaysia’s advantage is that it is like a “one-stop kitchen” offering a variety of food due to the many cultures found in the country.
And during the live cooking demonstration on stage with Lee, Ismail had the women in the audience clapping for him when he remarked that “men must cook”.
Amidst the applause, he said: “But I see that some (male) ambassadors present here are rolling their eyes.”
There were plenty of laugh-out-loud moments when Ismail was on stage with Lee, who demonstrated his own version of kimchi curry, which is a fusion of kimchi with chicken curry.
“Is kimchi anti-ageing?” the irrepressible Ismail asked.
Jokes aside, the Asean Culinary Festival has been a vital platform in introducing a potpourri of the best food found in Asean, as U Ohn Maung, Myanmar’s Hotel and Tourism Minister, points out.
“More people are travelling more often than before,” he says, thus the variety of flavours are reaching out to a broader group of Asean nationalities.
AKC secretary-general Lee Hyuk puts it this way: “Why do we travel? I think we travel to see and eat.”
He says that surveys have ranked gastronomy as the third most compelling reason, after “culture” and “nature”, for picking a tourist destination.
Korean travellers, he says, are known to be very keen to try out the diverse cuisine out there.
“About seven million Koreans travelled around Asean countries last year not only for the beautiful sites but also for the food,” he says.
The AKC, which is an inter-governmental organisation seeking to promote economic and socio-cultural cooperation between Asean members and Korea, is hoping that the annual Asean Culinary Festival will help Koreans get better insight into Asean food.
Lee says that the Asean Culinary Festival has become the only event in South Korea that features dishes that represent each member country.
The Korean public, for their part, seem eager to savour Asean delights as well. Right after the completion of the opening ceremony for invited guests, members of the public wanting to check out the festival began to form a long queue outside the venue.
Annyeonghaseyo, Asean!