Welcome to year 2014 and the fifth issue of Foodieland. At this junction, the authors, yours sincerely, would request all its readers to

please give us constructive (and destructive ) feedback in regards to our articles, reviews and recipes. Hit us with the bricks if you

have to!! We really want to improve and cater to the needs of our readers.

Considering the trend across India, we have targeted 4 food festivals in this edition. Here, we will take you through the journey of will

organized massive events, where organizers, mostly students have put in their best efforts to make food events memorable. We are

going a step ahead and have pasted some live photographs as well to make you drool.

At the same time, Foodieland requests all its readers to also suggest what you expect in coming editions, as well as share with us news

of any food events, new restaurants, places and joints worth exploring, and so on!! For that you can join us on various social

networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and Pintrest

Have a healthy and food-filled month ahead.

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Great food, mind boggling music, overall an awesome evening!! It was marvelous to see first year “kids” from a hotel management

institute organizing and driving a food festival. Organized at Bhoomi party plot near AEC cross roads, the event was definitely a huge

success, at least as Foodieland reflects upon it.

Priced at just Rs. 150, the food consisted of a buffet including mocktails, soup, breads, starters, Mediterranean/Italian, Pan Asian,

Indian cuisines, along with sumptuous desserts. We were equally impressed with the innovative decoration techniques used (below

pictures depict crocodile and snake made out of bread).

To begin with, we had a decent selection of mocktails (Purple Colada, Virgin Mary & Mojito), all of them very refreshing. Soups

consisted of a Pan-Asian soup and a tomato base soup, along with French/regular breads, bread sticks. Starters included “Pesto Paneer

ka Sula” (grill paneer preparations with Pesto sauce). There was a counter of Golgappa Shots, wherein the “Golgappa Pani” was given

in shot glasses.

(Images : Mocktail Counter (left) (Right) Various Mocktails at the evenr (L-R) Purple Colada, Mint Mojito, Virgin Marry Extrem

Right: Golgappa Shot)

We started the main course with Mediterranean – pasta in multiple sauces, a finely cooked risotto, creamy cannelloni and other

delicacies. Pan Asian was a mix of Chinese and Thai food – Noodles, rice and Thai red gravy along with pan Asian curries. The

enthusiastic first-years had even dressed themselves in east Asian costumes to add to the flavor. Indian food consisted of a regular

Paneer Subji, a unique “Lazeez Lauki” preparation and a finely cooked Aloo gobi, along with black dal and rice.

Desserts included wonderful cakes, richly prepared puddings, chocolate balls and ice cream. The pudding was the creamiest dish we

had in a long time. Overall, a wonderful meal and the best part was the value for money associated with this food festival. The number

of items and quality of food was equivalent to that dining in a five star at one-third the price.

(Images : Desserts at the Event)

This is not the end!! A sumptuous dinner was accompanied by an equally awesome music and dance show performed by the students

themselves. A band called “Hriday” led by Vinay impressed us, especially the songs of Rock On. We left the place post 11 PM, while

the music show was still on, and the audience was swinging to songs of Aashiqui 2. Before leaving, we met all the students associated

with the event and congratulated them on their success, and the efforts they had invested. Overall, it was a memorable evening that we

will look forward to next year as well.

Too much hype, too much rush, high popularity, but overall, an average experience for your friends at Foodieland. We visited the

yearly food festival last Sunday (yeah I know, Sundays are too crowded, but that is the point of a Sunday!!). To begin with, we had to

park our vehicles 1 km away from the venue at a public place because the crowds were beyond our imagination.

Talking of the food, the varieties were not as great as portrayed. The common stuff across all stalls was “bajri no rotlo” with some

traditional curry/vegetable (like ringan bharta). We tried rotlo and bharta at different stalls and the taste was about average. There was

a stall serving traditional “ponk” (green immature sorghum grains). We tried some “ponk-sev” and “ponk bhajiyas”. The ponk was

pretty dried up (definitely not fresh), and the bhajiyas were expensive (Rs. 50 for 5 small bhajiyas). Foodieland agrees that our

traditional cuisines should be revisited; however, the arrangements and pricing could have been better.

To give another chance to our “Desi” food, we visited a stall owned by two doctors, selling Totha (Immature Pigeon Pea) with

Lehsuni Bajri Paratha, Lehsun Chutney and salad. The taste was wonderful, and the quantity was good enough for two people (Two

thick paranthas with a bowlful Totha). This platter cost us 50 Rs., but it increased our faith for the festival.

We tried a Manipuri stall, and got a salad – “Singchu”. Folks may disagree, but the flavors did not appeal me and we did not find it

that tasty. We got creamy “rabdi” from a couple of stalls, which was good. The best item we tested throughout the evening was

“Nachni na pizza” (pretty close to our regular crust pizza). We also tried a “Jhalavadi Bhaidku”, but it was not served hot and hence

did not taste that great. Lastly we had sugarcane juice (sherdi no ras), which was nice but expensive at Rs 25/small glass.

Overall, the food festival was NOT cost effective as all items were priced above average taking into account portion size, taste and

quality. To give the food festival some benefit of doubt, we can say that it was impossible to try all the stalls in a single evening, and

looking at the crowd size, Amdavadis seem to have loved it.