Malaysia: Foodie Haven

Today, I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the launch of Tourism Malaysia’s Taste of Malaysia campaign. This campaign is organised in conjunction with Visit Malaysia Year to encourage tourists from Australia to visit Malaysia.

Taste of Malaysia began today and is being held at Seven 88 Bar & Café at Holiday Inn, Perth City. In collaboration with Air Asia, Penang Global Tourism and Holiday Inn, Tourism Malaysia hopes to bring a taste of Malaysia to the streets of Perth. It is one of the series of events and activities that has been organised to promote Visit Malaysia Year 2014.

This event allowed me to reconnect with my Malaysian roots because if there is one essential thing of what makes us Malaysian, it is food.

My favourite part of Malaysian food is the diversity of it’s origins. Our food often has Chinese, Malay and Indian influences in terms of style, texture and flavour. It is what makes our food so unique after all. As such, I was glad to see that Tourism Malaysia included staple Malaysian food like Nasi Lemak, Roti Canai and Chai Tao Kway. Although, I have to admit that the Satay was definitely my favourite dish out of all.

Director of Tourism Malaysia Perth, Kamilia Hani Abdul Halim

According to Kamilia Hani Abdul Halim, director of Tourism Malaysia Perth, the purpose of this two week campaign is to promote Malaysian food to the Australian public.

“This event is just to amplify and promote Malaysia as a foodie destination,” she said.

The campaign, running until September 30th, allows the public to experience a Malaysian cuisine and aims to increase tourism to Malaysia.

Already, Malaysia is the only Asian country listed on Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel 2014.

Fara Nabiha Ruslizan, president of Murdoch Malaysian Association, and her vice president, Tricia Cheah

Guests from various companies and university student associations were invited for the launch of the event.

Amongst the invited guests was Fara Nabiha Ruslizan, president of Murdoch Malaysian Association.

Besides the food, Tourism Malaysia’s culture troupe danced at the launch of this event, exhibiting the diversity and harmony in multicultural Malaysia.

In the goodie bag is a few informative and promotional brochures and flyers, Visit Malaysia 2014 magnet, notepad and postcards. I personally liked the postcards as they indicate the possible cultural experiences that you may go through when in Malaysia.

P.S. There’s a chance to win a 8D/7N Holiday for two to Malaysia if you order from the Food Festival menu at ‘Taste of Malaysia’!