‘Islamabad Eat’ returns to spice up capital’s evenings

Families, friends enjoy variety of multinational cuisines, musical performances

The three-day ‘Islamabad Eat’ food festival has returned to spice up the chilly winter evenings in the capital.

This time around too, the event for foodies has come with mouth-watering dishes from various multinational cuisines being offered by around 60 different food vendors.

This is the 11th run of the annual festival that provides businesses including home-based chefs and small-scale vendors to sell and market their menus to a large audience.

It also serves as a chance for food ventures to sample or launch new food items as families as well as food influencers and bloggers flock to the event to discover unique flavours and some experimental creations that may just be the next viral food product on social media.

A number of stalls were being run by young female entrepreneurs and even students who had a passion for cooking, baking or business management.

Read Eat Festival Karachi is back in town for its 11th edition

The festival featured a variety of cuisines including Middle Eastern, Thai, Japanese, Chinese, Mexican, South Indian and many others.

The delicacies available at the event ranged from desi snacks such as pani puri and chaat, to international dishes currently popular amongst the youth like ramen bowls and Korean corn dogs as well as a selection of desserts including an attempt at Spain’s viral San Sebastian cheesecake.

Aside from food and drinks, the festival ended each evening with a musical performance by leading artists including Hasan Raheem, Shamoon Ismail, Bilal Saeed and the AUR band. The event was attended by families and youngsters alike.

Tickets for the festival are priced at Rs1000 but students enrolled in schools, colleges and universities can avail a 50% discount by downloading the festival’s ‘eatsapp’.

The Islamabad Eat festival began on Friday, January 26 and will conclude tonight, January 28.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 28^th, 2024.