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s many as 49 different traditional food items were on display during the two-day Solo Culinary Festival (FKS) 2011 on Jl. Mayor Sunaryo in Surakarta, Solo’s official name.

The festival, which was officially opened by Surakarta Mayor Joko “Jokowi” Widodo on Saturday evening, was held under a 500-meter long tent erected along the center of the road.

The thoroughfare has since 2008 been turned into a special night spot for culinary tourism.

Jokowi, who wore an a la chef costume, welcomed and told visitors to enjoy the food.

“We focus on traditional Solo foods that are difficult to find in the market these days,” festival organizing committee coordinator Candra Wisnu Wijayanto said on Saturday.

The festival, the second so far, is designed to offer Surakarta’s food specialties as a way of preserving them. Presenters were real sellers already known for these specialties.

The foods were presented along the center of the culinary night spot, known as the Gladag Langen Bogan (Galabo), which is located at the eastern part of the Gladag Square in front of the Beteng Trade Center and Solo Grocery Center on Jl. Mayor Sunaryo.

Since 2008, the road which borders the historical Vestenburg Fortress is used as a main road during the daytime, but is closed at night for the culinary arena.

Among the foods offered at the festival included cabuk rambak, pecel ndeso, brambang asem, intip goreng, wedang ronde, soto gerabah, sate kere, lontong tahu gejrot and srabi soro guneng. They all became hot items during the festival.

Tenant Sri Rahayu said she was surprised by the enthusiasm of the people as she sold food at the festival, including sate kere, one of the traditional favorite snacks in the area.

During the festival, Sri said she could sell up to 200 pieces of sate kere per night.

“It never crossed my mind before that the people would be that enthusiastic about the food. I found a very different response the first time I started selling sate kere,” said Sri, who sells the food door-to-door on a daily basis.

Sate kere, which literally means “beggars satay”, is made of tofu waste instead of meat or chicken, which satay is normally made of. This accounts for why it is named “beggars’ satay”, in reference to refer to its cheap price, which is only half the price of normal satay.

If chicken or meat satay costs Rp 10,000 per portion, sate kere only costs Rp 5,000 per portion.

— JP/Kusumasari Ayuningtyas