BLUE BAND MASTER OLEH-OLEH: WINNER REVEALED

Initially wanted to share this post earlier as I have finished with the photo edits around two-three weeks ago but I have been extremely busy with my travels that I have to keep a lot of posts pended, apology to that but I am now writing & sharing my experience attending the Blue Band Master Oleh-Oleh winner announcement that took place in Plataran Dharmawangsa.

Every country has its own pros and cons, and even though we might be lacking at some factors compared to the growing foreign countries, but one of the most essential things that makes me feel so damn proud to be Indonesian is the fact that we're so blessed with the culinary culture that's so rich, bold, various and vivid in the same time, each province in Indonesia has its own culinary identity almost making that one of the many important reasons to keep on coming back: Medan, Bandung, Semarang, Surabaya, Jogja, Bali, Manado, Makassar just to name a few, and man I just gotta give it to Blue Band for coming with this brilliant program to gather people from all over Indonesia along with their ideas in search of this country's signature homemade culinary gift!

Plataran Dharmawangsa tour, it is one of the best Indonesian restaurants in town at the moment, been here three times already and their food has always been consistent, even as buffet! Good job to the team!

The idea might sound simple, but it's the value behind it and the spirit that was very overwhelming! The first batch of the program started in September 2016 and successfully gathered hundreds of thousands support from internet users and business owners (bakery and patisserie) all over Indonesia on their official website. Approximately around 3.667 patisserie and bakery owners submitted their products for the judges to try and give their thoughts on them, I can't imagine how tight the judging process and just how committed the judge panel was! They literally had to sample all the 3.667 products in a few days, not to mention the products are required to be natural and genuine-natural products usually stay less longer than ones with preservatives to keep the freshness still, and oh apparently one of the judges happened to be my all time favorite travel blogger Trinity The "Naked" Traveler whom I've met at a TV interview once and got to chat a bit before the event started, her passion for blogging is insane and I've been reading her blog since forever, fanboy here! ^.^v

Top finalists gallery

Mr. Thomas Agus Pramudji, Managing Director Unilever Food Solution PT. Unilever Indonesia explained that not only at the Validation state, but there was also judging process occurred for each province and nationally, the main judging keys range from flavor, texture, appearance and uniqueness.

Chef Rahmat Koesnadi (Pastry Chef and President of Indonesia Pastry Alliance) and Trinity (Travel Blogger and Book Author) joined the panel of judges alongside the heads of Blue Band Indonesia and shared their experience and thoughts about the program, judging process and deciding the winners.

The audience was pretty active in giving questions that day.

HERE ARE THE TOP THREE FINALISTS: Ismi from Super Roti, Nutsafir Cookies and Yuni from Toko Cake Salak Kilo.
...all winners are entitled to gold coins, advertising promotion package from Blue Band and of course official winner titles!

Finally the time came to announce the winners from the second runner up to the champion of this program, and Nutsafir Cookies from Nusa Tenggara Barat managed to grab the third place with her creation Nustafir Cookies

 Yuni from Toko Cake Salak Kilo Kalimatan Timur managed to grab the second place with her delicious Cake Salak Kilo creation, I genuinely love the moisture and flavor of this cake, you still get that salak (snakefruit) flavor character along with the sweetness that altogether came in just the right amount!

...AND DRUMROLLS TO THE CHAMPION!!!!!

ISMI FROM TOKO SUPER ROTI SEMARANG!!! YAAAY!

OK, so before you actually wonder what's so magical and delicious about these simple cookies that it deserves to win the first place, well let me talk about this further.

Bagelen Bekatul

Many of you mistaken the difference between Dedak and Bekatul, well two of them did came from rice & usually processed further as meal for chicken, but Bekatul's actually different from Dedak in terms of texture and nutrition value it holds. While Dedak originated from the outer surface of rice, Bekatul originated from the inner part of the rice, bekatul had a more smoother texture compared to dedak, also less fiber in it and when you put it in the water, bekatul would normally drown in the water.

The owner of Toko Super Roti was first moved by how highly ignored Bekatul is where in fact it carries so much protein that's so beneficial from children in their growing years and just one day she decided to try creating recipe and finally came with this Bagelen Bekatul which only uses selected red bekatul from local farmers in Purbalingga and Fructose sugar that she used as it's healthier and support the healthy bakery concept that she built & develop, even more because she really wants this cookies to be "clinically" healthy for everyone including people with diabetes, heart issues and cholesterol, she took the samples to the nutrition lab for further test and finally passed the test!

Initially she wanted to make a bekatul bread, but realizing that fresh breads only last 4 days and bagelen could last for months which should make it perfect for gifts.

I seriously think it was the authenticity of the recipe, the concept, the thoughtful health concept and simply how delicious it was that really made Bagelen Bekatul THAT deserving to win.

I am looking forward for more events like this. I always find it super refreshing everytime I attend or at least aware that events that could bring more exposure of Indonesia to its own citizens exists, I think we all have the responsible to make our own country less underrated by the international public's eyes because if it didn't start from ourselves who would?

Thank you for reading :)

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