The Keraleeyam food festival will be the best food extravaganza seen in the State, Minister for Food and Civil Supplies G.R. Anil has said.
Addressing a press conference in connection with the food festival to be held as part of the week-long Keraleeyam here on Thursday, the Minister said the festival would be held at 11 venues from Manaveeyam Veedhi to East Fort. Nearly 500 expert chefs will present 2,000 Kerala dishes. These dishes would figure on what will probably be the biggest menu card to be brought out as part of the festival.
More than 150 stalls with fare ranging from ‘thattukada’ to five-star standards will be arranged as part of the festival. Most of the stalls will be by small entrepreneurs who have experimented with varied fare and emerged successful. Government departments and agencies such as the Scheduled Tribe Development department, Cooperation department, Fisheries department, Dairy Development department, and Kudumbashree will also take part.
Ten of the State’s traditional dishes such as Ramassery idli, Vanasundari chicken, puttu and kadala, Kuttanadan pearl spot fish will be branded and showcased at the festival. Video of each dish’s history and cooking process will be presented at the stalls.
Manaveeyam Veedhi will have some of the State’s iconic dishes such as Pazhankanji to dried fish while University College’s ethnic food fete will have urumbu chammanthi to dishes made of tubers.
A street food festival that will be held on the road from University College to Vanross Junction will become part of the city’s night life.
The State’s renowned legacy restaurants will be part of the festival. A food show featuring popular cooks and chefs, especially those who shot to fame courtesy of social media, such as chef Pillai, Abida Rasheed, Firoz Chuttipara, Pazhayidam Mohanan Namboodiri and Kishore will be held at Sooryakanthi from November 2.
Popular food vloggers will be brand ambassadors of the festival.
The venues include: Kanakakkunnu – State’s branded food; Kanakakkunnu - Malayali kitchen (Kudumbashree food festival); Manaveeyam Veedhi – Nostalgia; LMS Compound- Pets food festival; University College – Milk and chocolate festival; University College – Ethnic food festival; LMS Compound- Seafood festival; Central Stadium – Five-star hotel food festival; Putharikandam maithanam– Taste of Kerala; Spencer Junction to Vanross Junction- Street food festival.
