Islamabad : Three-day long traditional food festival kicked off at National Institute of folk and traditional heritage (Lok Virsa). The festival intended to celebrate the cuisine of all four provinces including Gilgit-Baltitsan and Azad Kashmir. Principle Information Officer, Mian Jahangir Iqbal inaugurated the traditional and folk food festival.
Traditional food outlets from all over the country established their stalls. Visitors got to taste a variety of delicacies including Shikarpuri pickle, ‘falooda’ from Gujranwala, ‘Aab Gosht’ and ‘Hareesa’ from Kashmir, ‘Rosh Peshawari’, ‘Pulao’, ‘Chapli Kebab’ and ‘Peshawari Qehwa’ from Khyber-Pakh-tunkhwa, ‘Sajji’ from Balochistan, ‘Marzan’ from Gilgit-Baltistan, ‘Sindhi biryani’, ‘Kunna Tawwa fish’ from Sindh and ‘haleem’ from Karachi. Some stallholders brought cooked food but some made it on the spot.
Besides the food stalls, folk dance and regional musical nights are also being arranged to entertain the audience in which folk artists and musicians from across the country will perform to mesmerize the audience at the national platform of Lok Virsa. Executive Director Lok Virsa Shahera Shahid while speaking to media said, The event has been planned to celebrate spring as it was Lok Virsa’s tradition to hold annual ‘Lok Mela’ in the month of April that was shifted to October and November keeping in view the desire of people to have a spring festivity. Besides inviting food experts from all provinces including Kashmir, various women chefs’ experts of traditional cuisines will also make food for the visitors on the occasion so that everyone can have representation in the food festival, she said.
This provides an opportunity to build capacity of traditional food makers and also introduces masses to our regional cuisines, ED Lok Virsa added.