PT. Unilever Indonesia, Tbk through their major ketchup brand, Bango, present their annual gathering titled "Bango Food Festival" (FJB), and this year is the fourth annual gathering. "Year 2008 is the most extraordinary moment for Bango, considering it coincides with Bango's 80th anniversary celebration, as Bango has been a major part of Indonesia since 1928", said Okty Damayanti, Managing Director Foods, PT Unilever Indonesia, Tbk. She said this Bango culinary festival performance titled "80 years Bango, quality along the ages", is presented as Bango's effort to invite all people to join in preserving many kinds of Nusantara traditional cuisine which is part of our ancestors' inheritance and subsequently turned into the 80th Bango anniversary celebration performance. "This FJB program will be Bango's contribution in 2008 for the Visit Indonesia Year, executed by a culinary tour". By reviving culinary activity through the FJB program, hopefully we can participate in promoting Indonesia tourism", Okty explained. "We realized that cuisine is a very important part of the traditions. Hopefully, this year the culinary festival will support Indonesia tourism progress and become an annual culinary excursion agenda for stopover cities and other cities that are linked to FJB", she added. She hopes that Nusantara traditional specific cuisine will become a culture image in promoting Indonesia to other countries.
Indonesia has thousand of specific cuisines originating from Sabang up to Merauke. There are many kinds of Indonesia's recipes that use ketchup as one of their ingredients. Ketchup, especially the sweet one, is a very important part of Nusantara's culinary assets. Ketchup is made from a high quality black soybean and coconut sugar to give a richer taste to the cuisine. In addition as a cooking ingredient, ketchup is sometimes poured on food, as a topping or a sauce. "During the 80 years presence in the community, Bango which made from 4 natural ingredients - black soybean, coconut sugar, salt and water - consistently maintains its excellent flavour that been around since 1928', said Okty. Bango Food Festival will be presented in 3 cities Presented in 3 major cities in Indonesia, Surabaya is the first city of the FJB event. After that, FJB will be held in Bandung (West Java), and then following as a prime event, FJB will be held over 2 days in Jakarta (8-9 August 2008). "Through Bango Food Festival, we invite all people to join in preserving many kinds of well known traditional cuisine which recently has become less popular than foreign fast food", said Memoria Dwi Prasita, Bango Brand Manager . "In this culinary festival we will introduce one of Nusantara's culture assets, especially the cuisine diversity", she add. According to Memor, with this kind of FJB exhibition, hopefully Indonesian people's affection of Nusantara culinary heritage will grow. Referring to the chosen theme; this FJB will present 80 different local traditional cuisines. There are also 8 outer cities participating as "Duta Bango" (Bango ambassador). Food hawkers that will perform at this year FJB come from Surabaya, Jakarta, Bandung, Malang, Yogyakarta, Makassar, Bogor, Solo, and Medan. Bango representatives that will join in the 2008 FJB are Ketoprak Ciragil representing Jakarta, Nasi Bug Trunojoyo representing Malang, Gudeg from Adem Ayem Restaurant representing Yogyakarta, Tengkleng Bu Edi representing Surakarta (Solo), Kupat Tahu Gempol representing Bandung, Soto Udang made by Rinaldy's restaurant representing Medan, Tutug Oncom of Saung Kiray representing Bogor, Makassar special Coto by Daeng Muchtar, and Rawon Dengkul Nguling selected as Bango ambassador representing Surabaya. This is a rare opportunity where we can taste many delicious well known Nusantara cuisines at the same time. "This is one of FJB's objectives, where we can enjoy many kinds of different Nusantara special cuisines without visiting every city", Memoria explained. Today's FJB will spoil the visitors even more. While tasting the many kinds of Nusantara specific cuisine and snacks, it will also present various captivating entertainment shows. To realize that food is a part of the culture, FJB also include traditional arts show to add to the event. At night time, visitors can enjoy the performance of an entertaining music show. There will also be a children's play ground for children aged less than five years, making FJB a leisure place for the whole family. This year FJB presenters are Bintang Lazuardi and Dania who will encourage the visitors to participate in a quiz and "All in 80" interactive games with many kinds of attractive prizes such as free meal vouchers for 80 visitors at every round, throughout the day and night. Another interesting show segment is the Bango chef cooking demonstration who will share tips of how to prepare various menus of Bango traditional cuisines. "We are very pleased to see the general public and food retailers' interest in last year's FJB. Not only women, but men and teenagers also came and participated. This fits Bango's target to make FJB a gathering to introduce cuisine as part of our culture heritage, packaged with a traditional art show ", Memoria explained. In addition to pleasing the visitors, FJB will also give food retailer participants a positive persuasion, as their attendance may help grow their business and increase customers. As an appreciation to FJB food retailer participant, at the end of the gathering Bango will award an acknowledgement to the best qualified attendant, and best decoration award. Rp. 8 million prize money will be offered at each FJB gathering city. This year's FJB event involves Bango ketchup fans and Nusantara culinary lovers who have joined a society named "Komunitas Bango Mania (KoBaMa) - Bango mania community. KoBaMa will show their concern by educating people about the importance of appreciating Nusantara cuisine which is part of our heritage. Indonesia : PT Unilever Indonesia Graha Unilever Jalan Jenderal Gatot Subroto Kav 15 Jakarta 12930 T: +62 21 5299 6773 F: +62 21 526 2046 mediacare http://www.mediacare.biz
