Saras Food Festival, a confluence of taste and culture gets under way in Delhi
At the Saras Gallery, an array of products made by rural women are on display.
NEW DELHI- The Saras Food Festival 2023 got under way at Handicrafts Bhawan at Connaught Place in the heart of Delhi on Friday.
The festival was inaugurated by Faggan Singh Kulaste, Minister of State for Rural Development, Government of India.
The 17-day festival is being organised in the national capital by the Union Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) from December 1 to 17.
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Women entrepreneurs and women self-help groups, formed under the flagship program ‘National Rural Livelihoods Mission’ of MoRD are participating in the festival. This is an initiative of MoRD to empower women on a large scale.
About 150 women entrepreneurs and women self-help groups from 21 states with 30 stalls are participating in this event which gives them an opportunity to showcase their skills in the field of food making and introduce people to the food culture of our country. These women from SHGs are proficient in making rural products and preparing ethnic cuisine of their states.
People thronging the festival evinced keen interest to know about how different types of food from across the states are being prepared. They can savour the flavours of delicious ethnic cuisine from 21 states.
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These cuisines include sticky rice with black chicken curry, black rice kheer, sticky rice with mushroom curry from Assam, kair sagari, gatte ki sabzi, bajra roti, pyaaz kachori from Rajasthan, fish curry from West Bengal, Hyderabadi dum mutton biryani from Telangana, Malabar biryani from Kerala, litti chokha from Bihar, siddu from Himachal Pradesh, jhuner ki kheer from Uttarakhand and makke ki roti saag from Punjab.
They can also relish the delectable dishes from Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Sikkim, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat in the food festival.
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“The Saras Food Festival has provided employment opportunities to lakhs of rural women, who, in turn, have learnt the finer nuances of marketing skills to sell their wares,” an official of MoRD said, adding that the people of Delhi-NCR are seeing glimpses of Indian culture and food in the heart of Delhi.
Sunita Singh, a resident of Dwarka, who is a foodie, succinctly sums up, “For a foodie like me the Saras Food Festival is a gourmet’s delight where you can relish mouth-watering ethnic delicacies from across the country. It brings many flavours together.”
