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Indonesian flavors spice up Moscow
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The culinary festival introduces Indonesia and its culture to the people of Moscow and visitors to the city. (Shutterstock/-)
T
he Indonesian Embassy in Moscow and Grabli Restaurant are hosting the Indonesian Culinary Festival at eight Grabli branches from April 27 to May 18.
The embassy’s first secretary of education, social and cultural affairs, Enjay Diana, said the festival was officiated at the Grabli Restaurant’s branch in the Children’s World (Detskiy Mir) department store, located just 750 meters from Red Square and the Kremlin.
Grabli Restaurant commercial director Alexander Rozhnikovsky said this was the first time for such a culinary festival to be held at Grabli. Restaurant patrons are not only offered Indonesian cuisine but also entertained with Indonesian décor and music, as well as cultural performances.
Read also: Introducing Indonesian coffee through ‘Ngopi Sore’ in Washington DC
“Developing exotic menus with ingredients that are scarce in Russia while staying within a competitive price range is a real challenge, even for a big chain like Grabli,” said Rozhnikovsky, as quoted by news agency Antara. “But we had the support of professional Indonesian chefs as well as the embassy in Moscow,” he added.
According to Rozhnikovsky, about 20,000 people visit Grabli Restaurants’ network. It is hoped that this culinary festival can introduce Indonesia and its culture to the people of Moscow and the visitors to the city.
The Indonesian Culinary Festival features 10 menus encompassing various dishes, such as urap (salad with spicy grated coconut), soto ayam (turmeric chicken soup), nasi goreng (fried rice), risoles, sate ayam (chicken skewers), semur daging (beef stew) and many more. The Indonesian food is prepared by five professional Indonesian chefs, who had come to Russia from the Netherlands.
Indonesian Ambassador to the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus M. Wahid Supriyadi said the festival was held not only to promote Indonesian cuisine and culture, but also to create opportunities in business, economic cooperation and tourism. The ambassador added that Grabli intended to import the ingredients from Indonesia. He said he hoped more restaurants in Moscow would serve Indonesian food, thus popularizing the country of origin and getting more Russians to visit Indonesia. (asw)
