Puducherry food festival offers a culinary feast

Chennai: Foodies who visited Puducherry this weekend got opportunity to sample the culinary delights the coastal town has to offer.  

Spread over three days with about 55 food stalls in place from different parts of Puducherry, Chennai and Kerala, the festival  offered from idlis to a multitude of Biriyanis, tender coconut 'payasam' to ice creams, pani poori to momos. The Puducherry annual food festival had enough variety this year to send you straight into a culinary high.

 The Puducherry annual food festival 'Bon Appetit - Eat for a Cause' not only brings together the city's top cafes, restaurants, and bars, but also  raises funds to do community activities including building class rooms for school children.

“Food and travel go hand in hand. Food festivals are the excellent medium where one can taste the best a city offers. Now we know better the restaurants in Puducherry. So things are easy next time,”  said Ankita from Delhi who visited Puducherry with her friends.

Different programmes including musical concerts and dance events were also organised as part of the program. Camille from France was of the opinion that there is probably no way to experience the soul of a place than through its food.

“Puducherry and France have a long term relationship and this reflects even in the food culture. The food festival gave an exciting opportunity to me to taste the peculiar south Indian food,” she said.

Chief Minister V Narayanasamy who inaugurated the festival appreciated the organisers of the programme — Pondicherry Heritage Round Table 167 —  for their social responsibility. He explained that the government had made the policy paying special attention to promoting tourism in the state with an aim to generate revenue and employment.

 “This is the first time we are organising a food festival and got excellent response from the people here. We would continue this next year also,” said N. Venkat, one of the organisers.