Food festival delights gourmet

SHIMLA: An assortment of culinary delights of Himachal is attracting tourists as well as locals at the ongoing five-day Himachal Food Festival which started at the historic Ridge on Thursday. The menu showcases an extensive variety of non-vegetarian and vegetarian cuisines and sweet dishes from various parts of Himachal to tickle the taste buds.
Chefs at the hotel have conjured up traditional gastronomic delights including non-vegetarian dishes like chicken anardana, cha meat and other delicacies like ghandiyali ka madra, chana madra, palak paneer madra, sepu vadi (from Mandi) bhathu ki kheer, gheya ka meetha, malpuda and siddus with stuffed poppy seeds, which are being served with ghee.
The dishes are being offered in lunch as well as dinner in buffet as well as a la carte.
“The Himachali food festival is being organized for the last many years during the summer festival in Shimla to give visitors a taste of authentic Himachali dishes. The pleasant weather here is a good support and we have had tremendous response this time at the festival as compared to last year,’’ said NK Bali, senior manager of HPTDC’s Hotel Ashiana, where the food festival is being organized.”
The major rush has been during lunch hours and the venue being Ridge, tourists are pouring in to enjoy the dishes, he added. Anuj Singh, a visitor from Delhi, who was at the festival for the second consecutive day, said, `‘The range of dishes is quite exciting. There is a huge variety and it is different from regular dishes. The menu on Friday was more varied and tastier as compared to the first day. We enjoyed sepu vadi and cha
meat in particular.’’