Chandigarh tricity food lovers tickle taste buds at Kalagram

Chandigarh, December 9

All roads today led to Kalagram for tricity food lovers who thronged the mega food festival – ‘The Flavours of North India’ being hosted by the North Zone Cultural Centre (NZCC), Ministry of Culture, here and relished the traditional food flavours of North India.

The first-of-its-kind food fest in the region by the NZCC, the idea behind this initiative was to bring in a range of the authentic traditional flavours from Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Poorvanchal, and the UTs of Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh and Chandigarh under one roof.

The festival was a godsend opportunity for food lovers, especially working couples, visiting the festival venue to have the taste of various foods from various states amid the soul-soothing folk tunes, offering a typical musical ambience.

In the cultural segment of the festival today, artistes from Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Ladakh and Jammu Kashmir played on their respective musical instruments and kept the audience spellbound with their engaging renditions.

Food lovers had a range of choices to go about to tickle their taste buds. Punjab’s traditional “sarson-da-saag and makki-di-roti” was the most preferred food choice of the day for food lovers. Amritsari “chhole” with rice made a perfect combo for the choosy ones.

Himachal Pradesh’s food stall did a brisk business, unlike other lean days, with the lovers of Himachali cuisines making a beeline on Wednesday for their most favoured culinary treats from the hill state. They preferred “setu vadi”, “palda” and “meetha bhaat” (sweetened rice) for the sweet tooth.

Foodies virtually stormed the Jammu and Kashmir food stall, offering “rista” with rice (non-veg), “nadru yakhani dum aloo” with rice and “rajmah” (veg category) and relished the culinary wonders served hot. “kehwa” was an added attraction for coffee lovers.

While Purvanchal’ most sought after “litti chokha” was hit with young and old, Rajasthan’s “daal baati choorma” attracted a good number of food lovers. Ladakhi cuisines, which included piping hot momos and mok mok, that they relished to their heart’s fill.

“A big fat salute to the NZCC for hosting this first ever theme food festival in the city, which brought the composite food flavours of North India under one roof. We wish such programmes should be organised more often” said Shivani, a Chandigarh schoolteacher, lauding the NZCC’s initiative.

The fest will continue till December 11 with daily timings from 11 am to 10 pm.