Malaysia – a must-visit for foodies

By Jannah Lam Tourism Malaysia has organised the Taste of Malaysia campaign 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 Villa, 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. 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. The campaign, running until September 30th , allows the public to experience a meal of 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. A variety of staple Malaysian food, such as Nasi Lemak and Satay, was exhibited at the launch of the event. “This event is just to amplify and promote Malaysia as a foodie destination,” said Halim. Besides the food, Tourism Malaysia’s culture troupe danced at the launch of this event, exhibiting the diversity and harmony in multicultural Malaysia. 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. “Malaysian food is very diverse. It has so many different influences from Chinese, Malay and even Indonesia. The food is full of flavour,” said Ruslizan. If there is one uniting factor that all Malaysians can agree on, it is food.