The 5th Food Explore: A Diverse Sumatra, Indonesian Cultural Asset

The student organization of Food Technology proudly presents its annual event: Food Explore 5, which emphasizes the theme ?Sense of Diversity: A Diverse Sumatra, Indonesian Cultural Asset. This event will be taking place from November 7th ? 9th, 2012. Picking up from where the previous edition left off, this year?s event is promoting local staple food cropped from Sumatran native soil. Previously, in the 4^th Food Explore, it was Javanese staple food which was brought to the spotlight.

As stated by Marcia Angela, the head of committee, ?Apart from the reason that the island of Sumatra produces an abundant supply of necessary, basic ingredients, we picked Sumatran because this concept is much easier to execute than the rest.?

The iconic ?Home of Innovation? is back, inside which the visitors can get the taste of various food innovation prepared by students of Food Technology Department from basic ingredients commonly found in Sumatra. She further explains, ?We are trying to present these traditional Sumatran delicacies in slightly different ways. Take for example bingkang, typical of North Sumatran, which is basically made from wheat flour. We have modified it a little that results in a more fibrous bingkang, affectionately known as Bopikang, made from the humped part of a banana plant.?

In order to attract more visitors, only a limited number of these products -eighteen products overall-, will be on display during the first two days. The complete range of products should be presented on the last day of event.

This effort is to show that students can put into practice the knowledge of food ingredients and experiments on food processing conducted in a laboratory. Most of the students participating in this event are on the fifth semester, who have passed a series of selection process through interviews. The committee of this Food Explore 5, through a well-designed theme ‘A Sense of Diversity’, endeavors to encourage the usage and self-sustainability of local food ingredients. It is commonly known that people here prioritize Western food over more nutritious local cuisine.

Throughout the event, visitors can take a look at the ‘Home of Innovation’, compete in various on-the-spot games ?open for university and high school students, participate in a seminar, sing along during an acoustic performance by Endah & Rhesa, and get the taste of Padang-style satay, Palembang-style fish cake, and Medan-style noodle. More competitions will also be held, such as ‘Conditional Innovation’, in which high school students are conditioned to innovate using limited basic ingredients regulated by the committee. The results will be exhibited on the lobby of Building D. There is also ‘Foodography’, a fund-raising competition aimed to accommodate photography enthusiasts in the hunt of the best food-themed capture that is open to students and public alike.

“Witnessing how thorough the committee was in preparation is a great happiness in itself for the lecturers. A huge sacrifice has been made, coupled with both modesty and persistence from the students. Their effort commands from us respect and pride. We are expectant that the position of native Indonesian food ingredients can be held up high,” hopes Julia R. Wijaya, MAppSc, Head of Food Technology Department. (tna)

Payassed ice cream	The crowd at the House of innovation	Food Race competition for high school students

UPH Media Relations