One of the participating stalls at the Sandakan Food Festival village.
SANDAKAN: The eight days of food and all things food-related had turned Sandakan into a melting pot of activities, colours and flavours.
The Sandakan Food Festival which started from August 26 until September 2, with a selection of fringe events such as the Amazing Sandakan Food Race, a Bao Mountain eating competition and cooking demonstrations by Ropuhan di Tanak Wagu and Sandakan Master Chef Wahidan, had built up the momentum to the main event at Bandar Kim Fung.
On Merdeka Day and the Hari Raya Haji holidays, the food festival village hosted over 40 stalls, serving over 200 dishes from communities such as the Chinese, Kadazan-Dusun, Malay and even Indian.
The festival drew a wide audience of visitors, including many from out of town. Important guests included Chief Minister, Datuk Seri Panglima Haji Musa Haji Aman, who opened the festival village on August 31 and graciously launched the Sandakan Tourism Association mobile app ‘The Sandakan’, covering all things interesting here in this small town.
Datuk Pang Yuk Ming, the Deputy Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister also paid the festival a visit, coinciding with the launch of the nature book Wild Colour of Green Sabah.
In total, the event proved a satisfying success with local visitors coming in at more than 27,000, over the four days and on the last day alone, a sizeable 13,129 people entered the grounds. Revenue from all the vendors was estimated at over RM200,000.
With this first attempt at organising a food platform of this scale for Sandakan, the team at Sandakan Tourism Association (STAN) and all partners and supporters hope it will grow better each year and attract international audiences to sample some of the best culinary produce and traditions of this town and Sabah.
The organisers would like to acknowledge and render their thanks to MY fm and ERA fm, GRAB car, SabahEats, Widegrowth Marine Products, Chefs Association Sandakan, Datuk Au Kam Wah, Datuk Lind Tsen,Datuk Charles Pang, Tsang Hieng Yee, Magic Cook, Tupperware, Maggi, Teck Guan, Sandakan Food Lover Blog,Restaurant Heng Loong, Restaurant Ocean King Seafood, Restaurant Tai Lau, Sabah Hotel, Hotel Sandakan, Sandakan Styles Hotel, Sepilok Jungle Resort and all the STAN and the Sandakan Good Food Club members.