Food festival brings original Malaysian flavor to Guilin

The two-week Malaysian Food Festival opened on Sept 5 in Shangri-La Hotel Guilin, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, aiming to boost the recovery of Guilin's cultural tourism industry.

Three sets of menus with different themes are available during the festival, providing nearly 100 traditional Malaysian delicacies like teh tarik, kuih lapis, and Nyonya curry fish.

Zhang Yanjie, general manager of Shangri-La Hotel Guilin, said that the festival is the first large-scale food festival held by the hotel after the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) and that the event has allowed people to enjoy the charm of Malaysian food without leaving the city.

In addition, the festival has also been spotlighting Malaysian cultural tourism, as traditional Malaysian dance performances and on-site teh tarik performances are being staged during the event.

Azlimi bin Zakaria, the consul general of Malaysia in Nanning, noted that food is one of the ways to promote unity among all ethnic groups. As a result, Malaysian cooks were invited to Guilin to present their original flavors.

The Malaysian Food Festival has been previously held in several Chinese cities like Nanjing in Jiangsu province, Guangzhou in Guangdong province, and Chengdu in Sichuan province.