Cultural events, mouth-watering delicacies mark Day 1 of food festival

Chandigarh, December 3

Nine-day traditional food festival, ‘The Flavours of North India’, being organised by the North Zone Cultural Centre (NZCC), Union Ministry of Culture, began at Kalagram, Mani Majra, here today.

The first-of-its-kind festival broadly focused on authentic flavours from member states of the NZCC – Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, UTs of Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh and Chandigarh.

NZCC programme officer Yashwinder Sharma said cultural events comprising folk dances and folk songs (morning and evening sessions) from various states would be an added attraction of the food fiesta.

The idea behind holding a food festival in the city, where people from various states either serve or reside here permanently, was to offer an opportunity to food lovers to tickle their taste buds.

Food lovers relished traditional “sarson ka saag” and “makki di roti” from Punjab. Other culinary wonders in the veg category were “paneer makhanwala”, “Amritsari chole” and “rajma”. In the non-veg category, there are options like “non-veg curry and saag” and “dhabewalla kukad”.

The aroma of tempting cuisines from the neighbouring state of Himachal Pradesh attracted foodies to go for “madra” (chana, rajma and zimikand), “teliya maanh”, “auriya moong”, “setu vadi”, “palda”, “siddu” and “babroo”. For non-veg foodies, “kamod meat” and “chicken anardana” were the hot favourites. For the sweet tooth, “meeta bhat” and “bathu keer” were the choices.

Rajasthan had a special traditional menu which included “daal-baati-churma”, “pyaz kachori”, “moongdaal kachori”, “mirchi bada” in veg category and “special laal mutton thali”, “tawa chicken” and “chicken roll in the non-veg category. “Churma laddu” and “moongdaal halwa” were the tempting add-ons served hot.

Among an array of appetising culinary treats from Jammu and Kashmir, “meethimaaz with rice”, “kabab”, “rista with rice” in non-veg, “nadru yakhani dum aloo”, “rajma madra with rice” and “daal chana ambal with rice” were among Dogri veg food at the Jammu & Kashmir food stall.

The union territory of Ladakh has brought lip-smacking “popot”, “thukpa”, “praproo”, “tantan”, “chutagi” and “mok mok”. For the sweet tooth, there were “khobani halwa”, “apricot halwa” and “hot gur chai” for tea lovers.

Purvanchal’s “litti chokha” was the one-stop destination for the most demanding foodies and so was Gohana’s (Haryana) ‘jaleb’ (jalebi).

In the morning and evening cultural segments, folk dances of Himachal Pradesh (kinnauri naatti), Rajasthani folk dances (kaalbelia and chari), Jammu (Dogri dance) were performed.

Prof SP Bansal, Vice-Chancellor, Central University, Dharamsala, and additional charge of Vice-Chancellor, HP University, Shimla, was the chief guest, who formally inaugurated the fest by lighting the gas cylinder to prepare ‘halwa’ for distribution among the audience.

Prof Prashant Gautam, Director (Sports) PU, Chandigarh, was the guest of honour.

The daily festival timings will be 11 am to 10 pm.