VietNamNet Bridge – The cuisine of well-known restaurants, top hotels and well-known food and beverage businesses in HCM City and 10 provinces will be showcased at a food festival later this month.


Pretty enough to eat: The Southern Land food festival in late May will demonstrate the decorative arts of fruit and vegetable carving. — VNS File photo
The Southern Land food festival will be held at Dam Sen Park on May 27-29 by the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, which will work with a representative agency of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in the city, the HCM City Tourism Association, and Phu Tho Tourist Service Limited Company.


According to the organisation board, 60 food pavilions will be designed according to the culture of each region and arranged by topic: central coast gastronomy, Highlands gastronomy, Southern gastronomy and Sai Gon gastronomy.


Nguyen Tri Vien, deputy director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism – Hotel Management, said 10 registered provinces will bring to the festival 90 special dishes, including swallow's nest soup and bun ca (fish vermicelli soup) of Nha Trang; coconut candy of Ben Tre; grilled snail with fish sauce and pepper of Can Tho; Lai Vung fermented pork roll, Cao Lanh cylindric glutinous rice cakes and lotus rice of Dong Thap.


Quang Nam Province will bring Quang style noodles and cao lau noodles, and Hoi An's chicken rice and steamed rice cakes.


Eighteen businesses in HCM City including Dong Khanh Restaurant, Van Thanh Tourist Park, Thuy Ta Dam Sen Restaurant and Phu Tho Hotel will prepare 110 special dishes for the event, Vien said.


"Besides enjoying a wide variety of food, visitors will have an opportunity to contemplate the specialists' presentation of cooking arts and decorative arts of fruit and vegetable carvings," Vien said.


Many cultural activities will be held, including performances of traditional music, bamboo dance, classical theatre, art of folding coconut leaves; folk games of the southern region, traditional handicrafts of the south including woven mattresses and palm-leaf conical hats.


In addition, art troupes from the provinces of Ninh Thuan, Binh Duong and Ba Ria-Vung Tau will provide a lively atmosphere with performances in music and comedy during the three-day event.


"In order to attract visitors, the organisation board sent 40,000 invitations to residents in several districts, schools and export processing zones in the city," Pham Xuan Ngoc, marketing manager of Phu Tho Tourist Company, said.


Visitors to the festival can enter Dam Sen Park for free after buying an event coupon worth VND150,000.


Nguyen Thanh Rum, director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said the city hoped to develop the Southern Land food festival as a trademark because it is a tourism event with deep cultural colour that can promote excellent cultural values of Vietnamese gastronomy.


VietNamNet/Viet Nam News