This noon, I went to an ongoing event in Lapangan Parkir Timur Senayan called INA Culinary Fair 2014 or also known as Pesta Kuliner Nusantara. This event is held by Indonesia Tourism Promotion Board and supposedly offers about 117 culinary-related booths which serve various kind of Indonesian cuisine. When I arrived there, it was around 4pm on Saturday and surprisingly there was no crowd at all. To be exact, I was surprised to see how “dead” the area was, with the booths’ takers looking so bored and “unoccupied”. Some booths were even closed and empty, meaning no sales at all. I walked around every corner and only few booths really attracted my attention, the others just seemed so boring.

Beside food booths, there are also stage and festival area for included events such as Music Kitchen, Junior Chef Competition, Food Demonstration, Food Photography Workshop, Culture Performance, and Stand Up Comedy. However, during my visit, the area was empty and there were only some guests sitting and enjoying their meals from the food trucks. 

The food booths are located inside the big tent area, but in the outside, there are lots of food trucks parked and ready to serve the food! Some of them are the Taco Truck, Jakarta Food Truck, Gufto di Combi, Loco Mama, Food Stop and many others. There were barely any queue, technically the area looked dead to me.

The tent areas have long tables in the middle of the place, so no worries about finding somewhere to enjoy the meal. Honestly, what really matters to me was “what should I buy there?”. The booths look so unappealing and I just found it hard to choose something. There was one booth selling pudding-like dessert which are apparently made from seaweed, but I didn’t buy them in the end because I didn’t come back to that booth before going back home. The problem is that the area is so frigging HOT and eventhough they provide many big fans all over the place, there is barely any ventilation so the hot air is kinda trapped and circulate inside. 

Tahu Bazo Tresno Ati

Pudding Art 3D, would look prettier if they tone the color down a bit. These look disgusting, no?

Sate Buntel

Tried this during Ennichisai and love this matcha latte drink!

Surabi Durian IDR 20K each
This was from Sari Surabi Bandung and I really love Bandung version of Surabi. Usually made thicker and fluffy, this one was no exception and the real durian sauce was just YUM!! Before I went back, ordered another 5 boxes of this and glad I did so!

Burrito Beef IDR 35K + Habanero IDR 5K
It was from the food truck, Loco Mama, and although the color wasn’t too strong, it tasted pretty decent. The habanero certainly helped A LOT in adding the taste so if you happen to pass by, make sure to try the additional habanero if you like some spice in your burrito. FYI, Loco Mama usually “parks” in Kemang area since December 2013.

Nasi Kebuli Beef IDR 45K
After walking around for a while and couldn’t find anything interesting, I took a table and finally ordered this from one of the booth nearby called Sheik Taarik. I am not even a nasi kebuli’s fan to begin with, and I didn’t know why I ordered this, but certainly this wasn’t a good choice. The rice was actually quite nice and the beef cuts were quite big, but I simply wasn’t a fan.

Kerak Telor IDR 20K
It was from Kerak Telor Babe Romli booth, probably one of the booths that usually sell in Kemayoran area, I don’t know. The kerak telor was so thin, but tasted okay. Probably wouldn’t come back and buy another piece, though.

To cut things short, for a culinary-events-goer like me, I hate to say this but this event kinda sucks. I mean, I read that this event is held by Indonesia Tourism Promotion Board to introduce Indonesian cuisine so it can be more known by people of the world, just like Thailand promoting their country’s cuisine until they become so popular and well-accepted by the world. But hello, I think it is a long way to go if the events are like this, major disappointment!

But well, it is just my personal opinion, so if you wanna go, there is still 1 day left because the event ends tomorrow (June 15th)!

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INA Culinary Fair 2014 (Pesta Kuliner Nusantara)
Lapangan Parkir Timur Senayan
Jakarta Selatan 
Operational Time: June 11th – 15th, 2014


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