PRESERVATION OF PEMPEK CULINARY AS THE IDENTITY OF PALEMBANG

Abstract

Culinary tourism activities in tourist destinations are one way to strengthen the identity of a region. Pempek is one of the traditional foods of Palembang which has become the hallmark of Palembang City. This food has become a culinary icon of Palembang and is well known to the public at large, including people outside Palembang. The potential of pempek as an icon of Palembang is increasingly visible because Palembang has become a tourist destination and is strategically located in a center of trade and activity in South Sumatra. The purpose of this study is to find out the processing method and preserving pempek culinary as the identity of Palembang. The method used is descriptive qualitative method with SWOT analysis. The population taken in this study were Palembang residents with pempek processing samples. The results showed that the process of making pempek was quite complicated, the use of local materials made it easy to find all over the city of Palembang. The culinary varieties of pempek such as submarine, lenjer, curly, pistal and others are highly looked for the tourists who visit Palembang. In addition, pempek is able to become one of the icons of Palembang because it becomes tourists’ necessity who come to visit Palembang and is one of the market commodities for Palembang since pempek production is not only distributed within the city, but also outside the city.

Keywords: culinary tourism, identity, pempek, preservation, tourist destination.