Indonesian kitchens offer athletes, journalists local food during SEA Games

Fuel for the Games: Head of cuisine Desi Arianti prepares food for Indonesian athletes, officials and journalists at the Palm Tree apartment in Metro Manila. (Antara /Bayu Kuncahyo via Jakarta Post)

To support Indonesian athletes competing in the 30th Southeast Asian Games in the Philippines, the country’s National Olympic Committee (NOC) team has opened kitchens that offer dozens of authentic Indonesian dishes for Indonesian athletes and officials and journalists covering the multisport event.

The kitchens opened at several locations, namely Metro Manila, New Clark City, Subic, Batangas, Tagatay and La Union.

“We have provided dozens of dishes, allowing our fellow Indonesians to gather here and taste a bit of home through these foods,” head of cuisine for the Indonesia contingent Desi Arianti said as quoted by Antara news agency on Tuesday.

Fifteen kinds of Indonesian foods were being served, she said, including rendang (slow-cooked meat in coconut milk and spices), a variety of sambals, Cakalang suwir (minced Cakalang fish fried in spices) and orek tempeh (tempeh cooked with sweet soy sauce).

“We are ready to serve until the Games finish,” Desi said.

NOC chief Raja “Okto” Sapta Oktohari said the initiative was based on the idea of gathering Indonesians over food so they could bond with each other.

“We did this at the 2016 Rio Olympics and the results were impressive. That is why we are doing this again this time. We need to create a common space where everybody can talk nicely to each other,” Okto said.