With the festive season on full throttle, food lovers who would find reason to gorge on delicious food, now have the opportunity to go bonkers over cuisine from the Far East to Southeast Asia at The Asian Hawkers Market in Saket here.
The festival which started with a red and golden coloured affair on Friday will end on Sunday at the Select City Walk. Besides food, there will be live music, concerts by Indian bands and DJs. To add more fervour to the festival will be games like a special martial arts game, hoolas, chopsticks, arm wrestling and even dance-offs.
With 26 restaurants like Mamagoto, Neung Roi, Sampan, Guppy by ai, Chi Ni and Yum Yum Cha participating, foodies can have a gala time without much pressure on the pocket as the price ranges just from Rs.100 to Rs.500. With the portions comparatively small, visitors can sample different cuisines without feeling uncomfortably full.
The Market is an initiative of four food impresarios - Siddharth Mathur, Director and Head of 'Social' and food consultant for 'My Square', Select Citywalk's food court; Atul Sikand, creator and curator of Facebook's Indian recipe-sharing group, Sikandalous Cuisine; Tanveer Kwatra, Executive Chef, Le Meridien Gurgaon; and acclaimed restaurant critic and food blogger Sourish Bhattacharyya.
"We wanted to do a very focused food festival and luckily all four of us had the same thought in mind. Suddenly it just so happened that we met each other, and we decided that why not work together... So we all wanted to bring entertainment, good food together in one place," Bhattacharyya told IANS.
With five-star and stand-alone restaurants coming together at one location to present the cuisine of China, Korea, Japan, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia, Bhattacharya said that knowing "Delhi has huge appetite for food festivals, on a working day we are not expecting many people till the evening but on weekend we are expecting around 10,000 to 15,000 visitors."
The stalls were flanked by wooden carts on the sides, with restaurants and chains like 'Social', 'Yum Yum Cha', The Pho Kart (Vietnamese cuisine) and 'Chi' Asian Cookhouse.
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One tried Yum Yum Cha's Thai Orange drink to start with, followed by octopus in cheese balls and although very sceptical at first, it was no doubt worth a first time try on a friend's recommendation.
Wasabi Prawns from the 'Chi Ni' house was another dish that made the visit to the Market successful.
The other participating restaurants include the Royal China, Pan Asian (Sheraton New Delhi), Jade (The Claridges), Dimsumbros, Asia 7, The Fatty Bao, Wow Momo and Artful Baker.
"We at Wai Wai are delighted to be part of the first Asian Hawkers Market. A concept that is completely in sync with the our brand of exploring the varied flavours of Asian cuisine. Through this forum we are treating food lovers with an innovative avatar," Varun Chaudhary, Executive Director, CG Corp Global, the makers of Wai Wai said.
The Market timings are 12 p.m.to 11 p.m.