Although Jakarta offers a wide variety of street food sold by vendors, many locals are reluctant to give it a try due to uncertainty about food hygiene.

The second Jakarta Street Food Festival being held at La Piazza in Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta, however, offers a venue where hygiene standards have been ensured by organizers PT Summarecon Agung so that visitors can enjoy various local dishes without worry.

Hundreds of visitors have been swapping money for coupons from several counters in order to start their culinary journey.

There are 31 food booths and three food trucks showcasing various Asian foods, such as Japanese sushi or the Korean rice-cake snacks, tteokbokki, but dozens of families seem more interested in tasting the local dishes offered by 11 street vendors.

The street vendors offer well-known street-food dishes such as kue leker, a pancake-like treat folded in half and stuffed with chocolate, and ketoprak, a true Jakarta dish which consists of ground peanuts, tofu and rice cakes.

Business owner Ellen, 38, was one of the visitors enthusiastically digging into her plate of ketoprak.

'€œThis particular street vendor, Ketoprak Ciragil Pak Bejo, is pretty famous. There used to always be a line for his food at Blok S [South Jakarta]. I don'€™t live close to where he sells anymore so I had to eat it now. I know, it'€™s very nostalgic,'€ she told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

The ketoprak was a little pricier, at Rp 17,000 (US$1.39), than the usual price of Rp 12,000. However, Ellen said that she was willing to pay extra because she was confident the organizers had made sure that the food safe to eat.

'€œWe'€™re always picky about our street food because we don'€™t want to get sick from it,'€ she said.

Bandung native Ade, 35, shared the sentiment. She said she was always wary of Jakarta'€™s street food because there were so many horror stories circulating in the media about poor standards.

'€œI rarely hear about people getting sick from street food in Bandung but I'€™m always wary here and have to make sure that a street vendor is someone my family or friends trust,'€ she said.

While Ade slurped her bakmi noodles her daughter ate a bowl of cimol, seasoned tapioca balls, with gusto.

Summarecon Agung corporate communications head Cut Meutia told the Post that several teams had surveyed many street vendors for three months prior to the event to choose vendors who fulfilled the company'€™s cleanliness and taste criteria.

Meutia claimed that the level of cleanliness among the city'€™s street vendors had risen compared to last year.

'€œOur survey teams were impressed by how much more sanitary street food has become. We had very strict criteria and would observe how clean the vendor'€™s cooking environments were and how they prepared and served their food,'€ she said.

Meutia said the event was being held from Nov. 14 to 30, from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. Monday to Thursday, 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Fridays and 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. at the weekend.

So far, little has been done by the city administration to standardize the numerous street vendors working in the city.

Most recently, acting Jakarta governor Basuki '€œAhok'€ Tjahaja Purnama, who has estimated that there are 600,000 street vendors in the city, pushed for all street vendors to be registered by next year.

Once this was done they would be assigned to designated trading locations and be given banking access, he said.

Although the move may push for better organization among the vendors, there has not yet been much talk about standardizing the health and safety standards that still worry many Jakarta residents today.

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