Title: Tasting Indonesia: cosmopolitanism in culinary tourism

Authors: Intan Febriani

Addresses: Cultures and Development Programme (CADES), Faculty of Social Sciences, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Parkstraat 45, 3000 Leuven, Belgium

Abstract: Drawing on the practice of 'underground secret dining' in Jakarta, Indonesia, this paper attempts to examine culinary tourism as a way of enacting cosmopolitanism. What images of otherness in culinary tourism are effective in enticing cosmopolitan domestic tourists? What do these local cuisines represent for these tourists? While being cosmopolitans, domestic tourists are reaffirming their identity of Indonesian-ness. This affirmation is achieved by juxtaposing Indonesian with Western identities but also by gazing at Indonesia through the Western lens. The revival of interest on Indonesian culinary is not simply a reaction to Westernisation but rather an expression of desiring an Indonesia beyond the image that has long been presented and underrepresented by the state.

Keywords: culinary tourism; food tourism; domestic tourists; cosmopolitanism; Indonesia; cosmopolitan tourists; local cuisines; Indonesian cuisine; Westernisation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTA.2015.070039

International Journal of Tourism Anthropology, 2015 Vol.4 No.2, pp.111 - 121

Accepted: 03 Aug 2013
Published online: 26 Jun 2015 *

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