To celebrate World Food Travel Day, which falls every April 18, Omar Niode Foundation, based in Indonesia, hosted a webinar to raise awareness of the uniqueness of the natural, cultural and culinary travel potentials of the Wallacea bio-region.

“The Wallacea area, which includes Sulawesi Island, Maluku Islands, Nusa Tenggara, and the surrounding small islands, is not only rich in biological ecosystems but also has its food appeal. This makes the Omar Niode Foundation and The Climate Reality Project Indonesia interested in reexposing this area to coincide with World Food Travel Day, “said Amanda Katili Niode in a webinar entitled ‘Wallacea – Nature and Food Exploration, which was held on Sunday (18 April).

Amanda added, “although there are many kinds of food in the Wallacea region, there are still similarities because food in one area is the result of acculturation by residents and migrants.” As an example, Amanda cited that several areas in Sulawesi have Black Soup as a traditional food with kluwak (Pangium edule) as one of the ingredients, plus various types of herbs and spices.

Pantollo’Pamarasan from Toraja with 13 types of ingredients, including meat, spices and kluwak. Pallu Kaloa from Makassar uses 16 types of ingredients, including fish, roasted coconut and kluwak. And Sop Konro also from Makassar consists of 23 types of ingredients, including spices and kluwak, has similarities with Tabu Moltomo from Gorontalo which uses 30 types of ingredients including herbs and spices. The difference with other black soup is that the black color of Tabu Moitomo is obtained from roasted coconut.

Of course, there are other Wallacea foods, which were explained by Meillati Batubara from Nusa Indonesia Gastronomy. Apart from the food variety, the webinar also discussed the experience of the Wallacea expedition from Kompas Daily journalist Aris Prasetyo, and provided tips on budget travel to Wallacea delivered by Fitria Chaerani from Campa Tour.

Sustainable food that takes into account the climate, culture, and local community crises is also discussed in this webinar by M. Firdaus from the Wise Foodways of the Archipelago Consortium.

Executive Director of the World Food Travel Association, Erik Wolf delivered a welcome video in which he shared his impressions of visiting Indonesia. “During my trip to Indonesia a few years ago, I enjoyed extraordinary culinary delights, and met extraordinary people too,” said Erik.

Erik explained, the World Food Travel Association, which he founded in 2003, is now the oldest and largest organization in the world in this field. Meanwhile, World Food Travel Day, celebrated every April 18, is a day designed to celebrate the world culinary culture and our joy of traveling for food and drinks. “We started this celebration a few years ago, and it is now very popular. Every year, there are thousands of hashtagged posts celebrating that day around the world.”

Erik also invited business people and food travelers from all over the world to participate and share their stories and experiences about food travel. “We hope to see your posts tagged to @worldfoodtravelassn on Instagram and @worldfoodtravelassociation on Facebook, with the hashtag #worldfoodtravelday. We will be happy to like and reply to your messages, “he said.

Ending his remarks, Erik expressed his hope to be able to return to Indonesia soon to sample again the wonderful Indonesian food and coffee, after the pandemic ends.