Pinoy cuisine featured in Oman festival

Philippine officials held a food festival in Oman in October to promote Filipino cuisine, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said. The promotion of Philippine food products has been a major objective of the embassy’s economic diplomacy thrust because the food business has become the fastest growing area of Philippine-Oman trade. The embassy cited statistics showing that Filipino foods are now one of the major Philippine exports to Oman. The embassy said efforts are being to promote Philippine food through product display, food promotion festivals, and active participation in trade missions and international trade fairs. The Philippine Embassy in Muscat said the cooking event and food festival were held in cooperation with Shangri-La Resort Hotel in Muscat. “The Filipino Food festival was very timely as the hotel played host to hundreds of foreign guests for the opening of the Royal Opera House in Oman, the first of its kind in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, and in celebration of Oman as the Arab tourism capital of the Middle East," it said. Philippine Ambassador-designate Joselito Jimeno expressed hopes the international community will sample Filipino cuisine which he described as a melting pot of flavors of both the East and West. Shangri-La General Manager Robert Bormes said the variety of Filipino delicacies prepared by the Filipino chefs for the event “is for all of us non-Filipinos like a journey to some of the regions in the Philippines where food delicacies vary from one region to another manifesting the influences of Spanish, Mexican, American, Chinese, Japanese, Arab, Indian and Malay." - VVP, GMA News