KUCHING: The Sarawak Heritage Food Festival on Oct 11 to 13 is expected to draw a huge crowd of local and foreign foodies.
The festival, organised by the Sarawak Culinary Heritage and Arts Committee for the third time, will take place at India Street Pedestrian Mall and Kai Joo Lane from 6pm until 10pm and feature 62 vendors’ stalls.
The vendors will be serving an array of some 90 dishes from the Malay, Melanau, Chinese, Indian, Dayak, and Orang Ulu communities.
“Food is important everywhere we go. After a long day of sightseeing in a foreign country, we will get hungry and look for food,” Tourism, Arts and Culture Assistant Minister Datuk Sebastian Ting said after launching the festival’s video yesterday at The Waterfront Hotel.
“In Sarawak, we have a lot to offer due to our vast number of ethnic groups. Apart from food, we also have added arts to the festival and we do love to bring some souvenirs back to our loved ones,” he added.
He said during the night, there would be cultural performances.
Commenting on a request by Datin Dona Drury-Wee, the Sarawak Culinary Heritage and Arts Committee president, for a grant from his ministry for the festival, Ting said he was glad to announce that the ministry would come in to help. He added he might even contribute a bit from his allocation as well.
Dona explained that the festival aimed to introduce Sarawak’s rich and diverse ethnic cuisines as an avenue and platform to promote tourism as well as enhance culinary arts.
The festival would also showcase “made in Sarawak” food products produced by local enterprises such as Bario rice, jams, Bario cinnamon cookies, spicy chilli flakes and an array of sambals, to name a few.
“Culinary workshops will also be held during the festival at 7pm and 8pm. The workshops are open to the public on a first come, first served basis.
“The confirmed culinary workshops are senape buned — glutinous rice wrapped in itun sib leaf which includes eyung and aluh (mortar and pestle) in its preparation; tumpik — Bidayuh grated coconut pancake with various toppings and pani puri — puffed balls made from whole wheat flour, stuffed with delicious spicy and tangy fillings,” said Dona.
If members of the public think that parking is a problem around the venue, Grab has stepped in to offer a RM3 discount to all GrabPay users who book a ride using the promo code HFF19.
Also present at the launch of the Sarawak Heritage Food Festival video yesterday was Kuching South City Council (MBKS) mayor Datuk Wee Hong Seng.
