The Tastefully Food Expo is a Mecca for foodies, gluttons, or anyone looking for their next favourite snack. Vendors from well-known global brands to small family-run businesses flock to the expo to share their creations with hungry Malaysians. There is free admission, and what’s a food convention without everyone’s favourite thing – FREE SAMPLES! Yes, nearly every vendor at the Tastefully Food Expo gives out a small bite or sip of their product for visitors to try.
Location
The Tastefully Food Expo runs monthly across Malaysia in Penang, Kota Kinabalu, Johor Bahru and more. In Kuala Lumpur, it is held regularly at the Mid Valley Convention Centre (MVEC) on the 3rd floor of Mid Valley Megamall. However, it sometimes visits the Sunway Pyramid Convention Centre or Pavilion Bukit Jalil Convention Centre. I’ve only been to the MVEC expos so this post will focus on that location. Check the schedule on their website to see when the Tastefully Food Expo is coming to a venue near you.
What to Expect at the Tastefully Food Expo
The registration desk will be at the front. If you register with the expo as a visitor, you’ll get a goodie bag. They’re not hard to get, but you do have to give out your phone number and personal info. The bag will usually contain one full-size freebie, a bunch of flyers and maybe some smaller samples. I snagged a swag bag one year – the full-sized sample was a can of Pocari Sweat, so don’t expect anything incredible. You can also claim any lucky draw prizes at this registration desk if you’re willing to wait around for the winner announcement.
The Tastefully Food Expo at MVEC usually takes up all four halls. The stalls are arranged to allow visitors to easily navigate from aisle to aisle and not miss anything. It goes without saying: the number one thing to expect is crowds. You will find yourself in a human traffic jam as you make your way through the aisles. At some booths, you’ll be stuck behind a rabble eager for a sample. The crowd isn’t as claustrophobic as the Bon Odori Festival, for example. It’s still manageable, in my opinion. However, if you’re paranoid about germs or hate people bumping into you all day, the Food Expo might not be for you.
The best advice I can give is to avoid eating beforehand. In the past, we’ve made the mistake of going for lunch and then checking out the Food Expo. Now, we go on empty stomachs and graze to our hearts (and bellies!) content. If we’re still hungry after all those samples, there are tons of options at Mid Valley MegaMall. Honestly, the Tastefully Food Expo provides so many free samples that I’m not hungry until dinnertime.
Vendors at the Tastefully Food Expo
The Tastefully Food Expo isn’t homemade food from the hands of an auntie like you’d find at a wet market. Chances are you’ve spotted some of these brands in supermarkets. Brands from all over Asia are represented. There’s a mix of global giants like Johnsonville or Pocky to beloved home-grown companies like Ho Yan Hor and Bestari.
One brand I’m pretty sure is at every expo is OyuFish, which makes fish skin chips. Their salted egg, sambal or Sichuan-flavoured crisps are addictive but too expensive for such a small bag. I’ve also seen Lava Bites and their filled cookies so often that I don’t even take a sample anymore.
There are also many brands I have never seen before. With a couple of vendors, I only saw them once at a previous Tastefully Food Expo. I bought their food and loved it, but I could never find their stuff in the grocery store. If you loved something from the Food Expo, remember the brand name because the only way to get more of their product might be their Shopee page or at a future expo. Every vendor I’ve bought from at the expo accepted credit, cash, and other convenience payment methods like QR codes.
Food at the Tastefully Food Expo
From beverages to entire meal packs, everything you can put in your mouth is at the Tastefully Food Expo. While most vendors offer items you can enjoy at home, some vendors sell fresh snacks for you to eat immediately while walking around the expo, such as ice cream or whirlwind potatoes.
You never know what you’ll find at the expo. The variety of food is extensive, and the brands will be different every time. I can’t possibly list the hundreds of items at the Food Expo, but here’s a rough list of the types of food you might find.
- Beverages: coffee and tea mixes, herbal wellness tea, kombucha, juice, nutrient supplement drinks, plant-based milk drinks
- Salty snacks: nuts, chips, dried seaweed, jerky
- Sweet snacks: cookies, yogurt candy, konjac jelly, chocolate, dehydrated fruit chips, chocolate-covered nuts/raisins/etc
- Ready-to-eat snacks: fried potatoes, steamboat, ice cream, sugar-coated fruit
- Sauces and condiments: sambal, hot sauce, marinades, soy sauce, spice mixes, curry sauce, spreads
- Perishable: chicken nuggets, frozen fish, frozen sausages, greek yogurt
- Non-perishable: instant noodles, chicken essence, dried abalone, luncheon meat
If you see an item you eat constantly, buy it at the expo. The vendors at the Tastefully Food Expo always have a multi-buy deal that is good value for money compared to what you could get at your local supermarket. Sometimes they’ll even throw in a free reusable bag or a small sample of another product from the same brand. I once got a great price on MyKuali instant noodles for cheaper than I’ve ever paid (even when it was on sale at my local grocer) because I was willing to purchase three packages.
Samples
Let’s talk about what everyone came here for, the samples. At the Tastefully Food Expo, you are encouraged to sample anything that whets your appetite. Sample boys and sample girls will call out to you to taste whatever they’re peddling. You have to endure their elevator pitch about the product when you get near, but most are too busy to make you feel guilty if you say “thank you” and walk away after taking the sample.
There are many tiny cups with sips of a beverage, smaller pieces of a broken-apart snack, and toothpicks stabbed into a bite of something. Some items already in bite-sized portions will be cut up even smaller such as chocolate-covered nuts. The cookie vendor, Lava Bites, hands out full-sized individually wrapped cookies.
Sometimes there is food that is not easy to eat with your hands, like ramen. I’ve gotten some hefty ramen samples in a slightly bigger cup a couple of times. Some vendors offering sauce will put their product on some rice. In this case, they gave me a tiny fork or spoon. Nearly every stall has a garbage bin to throw your toothpick or cup away, and the salespeople don’t care if you throw garbage from another stand in their bin.
Non-Food Stalls
There is the occasional booth with inedible goods that are completely random and have nothing to do with food at all. Some vendors take advantage of the overwhelming foot traffic at the Tastefully Expo to put their products in our faces. The worst examples I witnessed are a stall selling bedsheets and another selling shoes.
Some others are a stretch but somewhat fit the festival’s theme and might still spark interest. I’m thinking of the citronella oil seller (to keep bugs away from your food), the shampoo for hair loss and scalp problems (probably caused by eating junk food), and the back and knee brace booth (if you’re a fatty with chronic pain from hauling your fat ass around).
Tastefully Pastry & Cocoa Festival
Once a year, there’s the Pastry & Cocoa Festival. This smaller event typically occupies just one hall at the Mid Valley Exhibition Centre. It’s not much of a “pastry” festival as it is a “cocoa” one. The first time I went, I expected to find vendors selling baking supplies and pastry snacks. Instead, it was mostly chocolate, cookies, and spreads. Unexpectedly, this event is noteworthy for anyone looking for plant-based alternatives. Many vendors offer vegan chocolates, plant-based milk drinks, and lactose-free desserts at the Tastefully Pastry & Cocoa Festival. Although this Food Expo is for those with a sweet tooth, a salty snack vendor sometimes slips in like OyuFish.
Tastefully Health & Beauty Expo
The Health Expo is often paired with the Pastry & Cocoa Festival in the opposite halls at MVEC. The stalls here usually feature plant-based meat, slimming teas, protein beverages, and all-natural, no-preservative foods. This version of the Tastefully Expo will have the most vendors with non-edible goods, like the citronella and brace sellers I talked about. I also spotted booths selling higher-priced items, like water purifiers and cooking pans.
When to Visit the Tastefully Food Expo
Every version of the Tastefully Food Expo at any venue will run from Friday until the end of Sunday. Friday is probably the best day to visit, but I have never been on a Friday and can’t speak from experience.
Most people can only visit on the weekend. In terms of time, I would say that there is no perfect time to visit the Tastefully Food Expo. There are advantages and disadvantages no matter what time you go. If you arrive early to beat the crowds, the salespeople have the time to sell to you, which may not be what you want if you have no intention of buying. The crowds are at their peak between lunch and dinner time. You might have to squirm towards a stall or wait to grab a sample, but you have a high chance of escaping any hard sells. Near the end of the day, the crowds thin out again. However, the booths will have limited stock, and some vendors might have stopped offering samples and are packing up.
Saturday Worthy?
I’ve attended the Tastefully Food Expo and its various editions many times. We visit nearly every time it comes to Mid Valley if we have no plans. It’s not only an opportunity to try a bunch of new food for free, but also an excuse to go to a mall we like. If you don’t mind crowds, checking out the Tastefully Food Expo is an easy plan for the weekend. You might even find your new favourite snack!
Tastefully Food Expo
Multiple venues across Malaysia
Runs from Friday to Sunday
10am – 10pm
https://www.tastefullyexpo.com/
