By IANS
New Delhi : With Pakistan’s simmering chappal kebebs and Sri Lanka’s tempting fish ambulthiyal, Maldives’ delicious masbai and Nepal’s spicy maasu bhaat – the food festival chapter of the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (Saarc) cultural festival is a cauldron of flavours of South Asia.
Open to the public Dec 7-9, the food festival – organised by the Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR) at the Ashoka hotel – is one place where best of chefs of the eight Saarc countries- India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Afghanistan, Nepal and Bhutan- come together to whip up some of the best loved delicacies of their countries.
External Affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee who inaugurated the festival Thursday said: “Food is a product of centuries of evolution, it is the window to the culture we belong to. In this food festival one will see that there is a great deal of common things that we, the South Asian countries share.
“Whether it’s our spices, our cereals, the form of cooking or the traditional form of service, everything is very similar. This festival reinstates the fact there is unity in diversity”.
All the foreign ministers of the Saarc countries were present on the occasion. They had starters served on a common silver plate, symbolic of the belief that breaking bread from a common plate increases kinship among the people.
On the first day of the festival, Afghanistan presented its specialities – ashuk, Afghani tandoori chicken and kubli pulao.
Asif Ali Yousufi, the chef said Afghani food is generally non-spicy.
“Afghani food is not as spicy as Indian food. Ashuk for instance is steamed and not at all spicy. It’s a flower which is found in places like Afghanistan, Iran and Turkmenistan,” Yousufi told IANS.
Bhutanese food, on the other hand, is very hot and spicy.
“Ema dati for instance, which is made of chillies and cheese, is a delicacy and it’s very spicy. Similarly, Ra-Cha which is a mutton delicacy is again spicy,” said Regina, the host at the Bhutan stall.
If you love gorging on fishes, then a visit to the Sri Lanka, Maldives and Bangladesh stalls is an absolute must.
“Hilsa and prawn dishes are a speciality and we are going to make a range of fish dishes. The green Bengal chicken is another speciality which one must try,” Tommy Miah, the chef at the Bangladesh stall.
“It’s rich green colour is because of the spinach and mint and not because of any artificial colour,” Miah added.
Besides that, the Bangladesh stall also had shadkora gosht, masala jhinga and llow ghoota.
Similarly, the Maldives stall had lots of fish dishes like masbai, which is rice flavoured with tuna and pepper and theluli rihaakuru, another fish dish, while the Sri Lankan stall had fish ambulthiyal.
Manoj Amardeepti, the Sri Lankan chef, said that their food is spicy but uses less oil and lots of herbs.
And then of course you have Pakistan and it’s aromatic fare simmering on the hot plates. Kadai gosht, kohati bhindi bhujia, chappal kebab…the tables decorated with all of this and more looks inviting and tempting.
But how is any meal complete without a sweet lacing the end?
So Maldives stood forth with its special paan, Afghanistan with sheu pera Afghanistan and aft mewa Afghanistan, Sri Lanka with a jaggery dessert wattalappan and Pakistan with its phirni.