China, Russia to take part in Ahare Bangla food festival

China, Russia and Bangladesh will participate in the biggest ever food festival - “Ahare Bangla” - organised by the State government.

This is the first time that the three countries are participating in the food festival that had been taking place once a year since 2015. Last year Bangladesh had taken part in the festival. This year, China and Russia has shown interest in participating in the festival for which Rs 4.25 crore would be invested.

The festival will begin on October 21 and it will continue till October 25 in Milan Mela Ground. The festival will remain open from 12 noon to 9 pm everyday.

The state Panchayat minister Subrata Mukherjee will be inaugurating the festival on October 21 in the presence of the state fire minister and Mayor, Sovan Chatterjee, PWD minister Aroop Biswas, Civil Defence minister Javed Khan and the Animal Resource Development department minister Swapan Debnath.

There will be a separate international pavilion in hall number 4 in Millan Mela ground. Around 30 well known restaurants, four organisations of the state government and 23 sweet shops would be participating in the festival.

There will be a capacity of 2,500 people to sit and have food at a time in the festival. There would also be a special zone for sweets and desserts in the festival.

There will be a different theme for each day. Rajesh Sinha, secretary of the Animal Resource Development department, said that the theme on October 22 is Bengali vegetarian Recipe. The theme for October 23, 24 and 25 would be colonial effect on Bengal cuisine, eggs and fish respectively.

The restaurants which will be setting up their stalls in the festival would have to buy ingredients required for cooking from the state government co-operations and outlets like Sufal Bangla. There will also be an outlet of Sufal Bangla in the festival.

A 500 square feet area will be earmarked to set up a “dheki” – the traditional husking machine. People can buy rice from the enclosure. Moreover, award will be given for the best recipes to be prepared during the festival.