Mouth-watering: Food Bazaar — a feast for taste buds

Festival at Fortress Square Mall offers variety of cuisines, entertainment

LAHORE: Lahore Food Bazaar opened at Fortress Square Mall on Monday with the stated objective of encouraging small businesses and entrepreneurs.

The festival featuring 45 stalls has been organised by Asad Tanveer and Sarosh Ather, third year students at the Beaconhouse National University (BNU).

“The rain caused a slight delay… but the weather is expected to remain clear over the next two days… the festival will continue until Sunday,” Tanveer said. “Similar festivals taking place in other cities, including Karachi Eat, prompted us to introduce the Food Bazaar in Lahore,” he said.

He said their initiative was slightly different because it encouraged small home-based businesses and entrepreneurs to set up stalls.

Some of the stalls showcased traditional food with a modern twist.

Sharjeel Shahab, a 2nd year student at the LUMS, has set up a stall called Panpati offering traditional paan (betel) as well as chocolate and blueberry flavours.

Another stall has sought to provide visitors the taste of authentic ice cream. “The ice cream we usually eat contains a lot of artificial flavours,” said Wasiul Qadir, part of a six-member team that has picked the idea from Thailand. The stall offers ice cream flavoured only with fresh fruits.

“All our team members are engineering students. We have created the cart ourselves,” Qadir said.

A stall set up by Shirin Nazeem carried cuisine from Hunza, including Arzok. Nazeem said the most popular item on the offer was Mantu, a mutton-stuffed dumpling.

She said she had earlier set up stalls at Khayaal Festival, Haryali Market and Khalis Market and received a good feedback.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 20^th, 2016.