Last month brought us to this amazing food festival in Eastleigh in south of England.The event was created by some enterprising minds from India and Pakistan and friendly joint venture .The vision of the event was to bring friendship &Unity through flavours..
After our drive of over 50 kms from Bournemouth to attend this event ,we were amazed to see that the parking lot for the event was jam packed .There was a huge line of hungry fans who were waiting to attend the event .We parked the car away from the venue at the first available parking and walked down back to the event venue .
There was chatting and new introductions while the wait took place in the long queue.To our luck the wait was no over than 30 minutes and were able to enter the closed event premises.
The atmosphere was just enchanting and thrilling full of people from all the communities .There were food stalls all over the place with food from different states and parts of India and Pakistan.
For me to attack on with my Indian food hunger was the obvious Golgappa ,which were freshly made with some love and care by some great women at ARM Chaat Corner. Next to try on the agenda came up for me was Bhelpuri which was just so well prepared.
For me as a vegetarian from this year ,the next thing to try was a north Indian Patter of Paneer ,Chole and Rice with Naan. This was thorougly enjoyed by my wife too.
The food was so mouth watering and alluring that I had go on a cheat day with my Low Carb diet.
The next on the list turned out to be a Bengali sweet Payeesh which I just could not resist to how much I would have wanted to .
The atmosphere was enjoyable ,friendly with lots of different languages being heard around .This so reminded me back of any Street market in Delhi.
The small wait and series of communications and new introductions saw me landing on the Kerela stall with its alluring Idlis sambhar with coconut chutny and sweet Unniapum.
This was mind boggling so good that I thoroughly enjoyed the Sambhar which was so well tenderly cooked .
My wife was absolutely enjoying every thing but was on look out for a great non vegetarian dish .This she found finally at the Karachi Haleem which was amazingly cooked so well and served.
All was yummy and satisfying while all this was going around but I felt my Punjabi roots in me missed some thing .I started to look out for the Punjabi food which I finally found right at the end of the hall with some amazing Dal Makhani with rice at Jolly’s Punjabi Dhaba by Rajan and Meenakshi.
There was an ongoing music played in the adjacent hall by the famous singer Ravi Kumar. The atmosphere was over all so jovial and content full of happiness and laughter.
There was Honourable Mayor of Eastleigh with his wife who was seen taking photographs with the organisers of the event and enjoying with the mood.
As we ended our culinary journey at the food festival and the event ,we were so thoroughly happy and fulfilled with the great food and atmosphere .We were so thrilled to be a part of the event where the funds were raised for the victims at Turkey -Syria Earthquake and Southampton Children’s Hospital
I was so thrilled to come know so many good people and make some new friends .
The amazing food will remain reminiscent to me till we are there at the next year event once again -HUNGRY -looking for some great Indian Food .
Every body enjoy your meals ....
