To promote various types of food produced by the farmers of West Bengal, the state government is organising a unique food fest from October 30 to November 2, 2015. The four-day-long ‘Ahare Bangla – a food festival celebrating Bengal’ at the city’s Milan Mela grounds would showcase the unique food products from the state like agricultural produces, fish, meat and mouth-watering desserts.
West Bengal is home to many unique varieties of agricultural produces, for example, black aromatic rice known as kala bhat, short grained aromatic rice kalo nunia, gobinda bhog, tulai panji, katari bhog etc., pulses such as sona mug, bhaja kalai dal, etc., and some vegetables which are found only in this part of the country.
The state’s Animal Resources Development Department would be promoting various non-conventional and exotic meat and meat products such as quail, turkey, rabbit, emu, pork (including exotic ghunghroo variety), black Bengal goat, bonopala lamb, garole lamb, apart from various new products of conventional meats.
The Fisheries’ Department has also started introducting new varieties of fish with high nutritional value and improved taste among the people, the popular among them are vennami, pungus, Vietnam Koi, etc. It is aimed at letting the consumers have a taste of these products. An official disclosed that leading restaurant groups and caterers of the city have partnered with the state government to bring the diversified cuisine in a unique setting – the visitors to the meet may see, eat, buy and take home the amazing varieties of these items – cooked or raw.
Some of the leading participants at the festival include the Speciality Group of Restaurants, Bijoli Grill, Continental Catering Services, Tangerine, Mother Dairy, BENFISH and others. “At the food-fest, the chefs will prepare regular Bengali food using unique and new ingredients as well as prepare exotic and fusion food using our traditional ingredients,” he added.
The festival would be interspersed with ethnic cultural programmes, live cookery shows by renowned chefs, panel discussion and a B2B summit, the official confirmed. Anjan Chatterjee of Speciality Group of Restaurants would be speaking at a panel discussion titled – ‘The profession of cooking … from catering to fine dining’. Joymalya Banerjee and Chef Shaun Kenworthy too would be also speaking at this panel discussion. Cookery classes on how to prepare authentic Bengali dishes would be another attraction at the fest.