Marking the 50th anniversary of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the ASEAN-Korea Cultural Exchange Year, a culinary and tourism promotional event took place at Coex in Seoul from Thursday to Sunday.

Ten celebrity chefs from the 10 member states flew to Korea for the event and showcased their national dishes, including Brunei’s ilkan goreng berkuah, Cambodia’s prahok ktiss, Indonesia’s sate maranggi, Laos’ laab kai, Malaysia’s pulut kuning and rendang, Myanmar’s shan noodle salad, the Philippines’ adobo, Singapore’s kaya toast, Thailand’s tom yang kung and Vietnam’s bun cha.

At the opening ceremony Friday, a live cooking show was performed by a Philippine chef alongside a coffee-making presentation featuring local coffee varieties. The event was attended by ASEAN ambassadors and diplomats, officials from the Korea World Travel Fair, journalists, professors, government officials and members of the ASEAN-Korea Center in Seoul, which organized the event. 

A tourism promotional pavilion was opened as part of the international travel fair during the same period, offering printed and online information on tourism sites across ASEAN as well as various promotional events. The regional bloc is offering 50 special tourism packages in celebration of the anniversaries. Information is available at visitasean50.com/top-deals.

“The ASEAN Culinary Festival 2017 will arouse the taste buds of all food lovers and introduce exciting destinations for travelers looking for unexplored places,” said the center’s Secretary-General Kim Young-sun.

“As much as kimchi is important to Koreans, the dishes that are presented here represent the pride of ASEAN member states,” said ambassador of Brunei Darussalam, Dato Mohd Rosli Sabtu. “The introduction of the ASEAN cafe, cultural performances and other features will surely add to the excitement and attraction of booths. It will be a truly unique experience for visitors.”

Highlighting “thriving” people-to-people ties between ASEAN and Korea, the envoy said the growing exchanges are set to continue as the two sides intensify their efforts to deepen relations.

By Joel Lee (joel@heraldcorp.com)