soybean field

USSEC Indonesia Participates in TV Talk Show

USSEC’s Indonesia was invited to participate in the national television program “The Eight Eleven Show” to discuss tempe and soybeans. The “Eight Eleven Show”, as the name implies, is a live talk show that airs daily on Metro TV from at 8 AM to 11 AM Monday through Friday. The program is divided into three sessions covering three different topics, about 60 minutes each, interspersed with interludes of music and entertainment.
Tempe was the topic of discussion at the second session and Dadi Maskar, USSEC’s Indonesian Food Program Manager, was the guest, representing Indonesian Tempe Forum.  Also on hand from the Indonesian Tempe Forum was Chef Hidayat, who gave a live culinary demonstration on cooking with tempe. Tempe is a traditional fermented soybean dish unique to Indonesia and is consumed by millions as a staple source of protein in the diet.  It is made by thousands of small family producers throughout the country and normally produced in bars of eight to twelve inches long.
During the program, Maskar explained the mission of the Indonesian Tempe Forum and its role in providing education to raise tempe production standards and improve the image of tempe among Indonesia’s consumers.  Chef Hidayat demonstrated the preparation of three menus derived from tempe: tempe juice, tempe srikaya dessert and martabak. The show’s host and guest stars all tasted the tempe dishes and were impressed on how original, creative and delicious they all were.
With a population of over 240 million, fifth in size worldwide, soybean consumption in Indonesia is among the highest in Southeast Asia at 25 lbs per capita, primarily in the form of tempe and tofu.  This tempe project is part of a larger USSEC program to stimulate growth in consumption by improving production facilities and quality of tempe and tempe products in order to raise the image of tempe as a safe and healthy food.  In 2012, Indonesia was America’s 3rd largest customer for U.S. soybeans, importing over 1.7 million metric tons (63 million bushels).

Dady Maskar and Aip Syariffudin, Chairman of GAKOPTI (Indonesian Joint Cooperative Producers Tempe Tofu), at the Eight Eleven Show.