Best of Asia finds a home at Pretoria mall

Brooklyn Square mall in Pretoria was at the weekend transformed into the best of Asian food, fashion, artifacts and the best cuisine demos by renowned chefs and culture exponents from Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia.

The festival was opened by the chairman of the ASEAN-Pretoria Committee, Philippine Ambassador Joseph Gerard B. Angeles.

Angeles said the festival was a coming together of countries in the region to develop various projects.

Entertainment included the “Tinikling” dance from the Philippines, Vietnam traditional costume show accompanied by the “Non La” dance and Thailand traditional “Muay Thai” performance.

Upstairs at Sterlings – the kitchen suppliers, spices and herbs warmed a somewhat chilly Saturday Pretoria morning with some in the audience so enthralled by the slicing and dicing of vegetables they whipped out their cellphones and recorded the entire cooking demonstrations.

There was plenty of bottled water to soothe any burning tongues from the many varieties of chilli used in Thai cooking.

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The Thai menu comprised Nam Tok Neu, Pad Gaprao and Panang Neu.

Interestingly, the menu was adjusted to suit meat-eating South Africans, with lots of options to use beef, fish or chicken.

An Indonesian chef demonstrated two traditional dishes – Martabak (Omelette pancake) and Klepon Cake.

Myanmar demonstrated how to make its traditional Vemicelli Soup and Rice Noodle Salad.

Singapore showed the audience the way to make Yong Tau Foo and Singapore Sling. But not before serving the audience with a punch to keep the interest.

After every demo the audience was invited to taste the food.

In their half-hour time allocation, the Philippine chefs made Filipino Pancit and Spring Rolls.

Not to be outdone, chefs from Malaysia demonstrated how to make Roti Jala and Curry Puff.

Rounding off the cooking demonstrations, chefs from Vietnam made Vietnamese Fried Spring Rolls and Green Bean and Corn Dessert with Sweet Coconut Gruel.

Downstairs at the Brooklyn Design Square there were several cultural presentations and lots of artifacts, fashion and jewelry from the participating Asian countries.

The only disappointing aspect for shoppers was that most of the wares were only for display and not for sale.

But the sounds of Indonesia’s Balinese gamelan music and the graceful motion of the Legong Bapang dance more than made up for it. Many in the audience asked to take pictures with the dancer in her unique and colourful costume.

Pencak Silat’s performance was also captivating.

During the Festival, the Indonesian Pavilion exhibited tourist attractions in that country, such as angklung musical instruments, Batik, Indonesian handicrafts, consumer products made in Indonesia, which include strategic industrial products such as trains, airplanes, and tanks, which it already exports to South Africa.

Apart from artifacts, fashion items, and trinkets, Vietnam’s pavilion clearly showed that the country has long shed is war-torn image.

Information available on developments in that country was an eye-opener. Many visitors were pleasantly surprised to learn that the resurgent country is involved in green energy.

The operation of Vietnam’s first wind power plant in Bac Lieu in 2013 marked a milestone towards the production of clean and sustainable energy.

Following the successful launch, many wind and solar power projects have since been built in southern Vietnam.

One of these projects is a wind and solar power complex in Ninh Thuan, which was built in 2016. The complex has 700,000 solar panels with an expected capacity of 204 MW.

Some 65 years after the historic Dien Bien Phu war, the battlefield has become a political, economic, cultural and tourist hub. Last year 705,000 tourists visited Dien Bien Phu.

The martial arts display from Indonesia known as “Pencak Silat” was the closing act.

Shoppers at Brooklyn Mall were treated to an explosion of Asian culture and cuisine on Saturday. PHOTO: ANA

Recipes:

MARTABAK TELUR

(OMELETTE PANCAKE)

(For 6 portions)

Ingredients:

·       1 Egg

·       2 Green onions

·       6 Sheets of spring roll skin

·       Cooking oil

·       Salt

·       Pepper

How to make:

·       Cut the green onion and mix it with egg, salt, and pepper.

·       Put 2 tablespoons of the egg mixture in the middle of the spring roll skin and fold the edges to make a rectangle shaped rolls.

·       Put some oil into the pan in medium heat and deep fried the omelette pancake until golden brown.

KLEPON

(SWEET GLUTINOUS RICE BALLS STUFFED WITH PALM SUGAR)

Ingredients:

·       250gr of glutinous rice powder

·       50gr of rice powder

·       150ml water mixed with pandan essence or green food coloring

·       Salt

·       Steamed grated coconut

·       Grated palm sugar

·       Granulated sugar

How to make:

·       Mix the glutinous rice powder, rice powder, and salt until well-corporated.

·       Pour the pandan water gradually into the mixture and knead them into a firm but flexible dough and not sticky.

·       Pull off one full teaspoon of the dough, flatten it and put in approximately ½ teaspoon of grated palm sugar.

·       Seal the dough and roll it back into the ball shape with the palms of your hands.

·       Prepare all the balls and set them aside.

·       Prepare a pot half filled with water and bring it to a boil.

·       Drop the balls into the boiling water. Remove the balls with a spoon once they float to the water surface and then roll the balls in the grated coconut that has been mixed with salt and sugar.

·       Serve at room temperature.

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