RI envoy to Netherlands to promote culinary diplomacy

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Wed, 12/28/2011 12:57 PM


The Netherlands will become a center for promoting Indonesian cuisine in Europe, according to the nation’s new top envoy to The Hague.

Retno Marsudi said after her swearing in on Wednesday that she would use the best of local cuisine to enhance the relationship between the two countries, antaranews.com reported.

Culinary diplomacy would also improve the Indonesian economy, Retno added.

Several other Indonesian embassies have also held culinary festivals to promote traditional dishes.

In Dubai, for example, a cooking demonstration in Grand Millennium Hotel featured gado-gado, karedok and urap as appetizers with a main course of tongseng kambing (lamb curry in soy sauce), ikan bumbu pesmol (fried fish in yellow sauce), fried rice and fried noodles.

Martabak asin egg pancakes, bubur sumsum (coconut rice pudding with palm sugar syrup) and es cendol (drink made from rice flour served with coconut milk, palm sugar and ice cubes) were served as desert.

Further, the Indonesian Embassy in Moscow cooperated with the Association of Russian Gastronomic Observers to hold a garden party where dabu-dabu from North Sulawesi was served.