Dilli savours local pakwaan at National Street Food Festival

Thousands of Delhiites thronged JLN Stadium to partake in the three-day National Street Food Festival, marking their year's end on a delicious note. The festival, organised by National Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI), featured street food vendors from 70 Indian cities, delighting the capital's foodies with a range of local flavours, from teekha and chatpata to meetha.

A flavour-packed food fiesta in Delhi

Organised as a zero-waste festival for the first time, the street food festival was a green one, with vendors going plastic-free and serving food in eco-friendly disposables or organic pattals.

Pizza Omelette in making

The biting cold and no-sun weekend made for perfect weather to enjoy multiple rounds of tandoori chai. Winter specials like bhutta, shakarkandi and sugarcane were available too.

To brave the cold, some sipped on the Kashmir kahwa

From Surat’s steamed rolls called Locho and Himachali siddu to Uttarakhand’s pahadi delights, palette-pleasing street foods from all over the country were on offer

Visitors at the 13th edition of the food festival relished Afghani, Turkish and Nepali flavours too - like Afghani steamed dumplings called mantu, Turkey's flatbread pizza known as Lahmacun Mila and Nepal's bangle-shaped bread sel roti, which is very popular in eastern India as well. From Delhi’s Mini Kabul, Afghan vendors offered their country’s delicacies like chicken mantu, apart from cookies, baklawa, cakes and Afghani rot (sweet bread). Rahmat, who was at the stall, shared that it was their first time at the street food festival. “Everyone’s confusing mantu with momos, but it’s different, it is densely filled with chicken and topped with curd-based topping and served with red chilli and a traditional green chutney."

Karuna Rabha from Shillong explained to us how Nepali dish sel roti is made. The bangle roti is made of rice flour. The roti is served with a white pea and potato sabzi made in black-sesame paste. Non-vegetarian version was available too.

Bhola, a vendor from Sarojini Nagar was selling dahi sev jalebi. “The taste is unique - it has meetha, teekha and chatpata flavour as jalebi is topped with chutneys, sev and curd,” he said.

A stall offered bamboo rice and chicken, a tribal cuisine delicacy from Andhra Pradesh.

“Kya Kya khaya ye yaad rakhna mushkil tha, because we ate a lot. The food was really good. Another highlight of the festival was how cleanliness had been maintained. The vendors were taking good care of hygiene as well,” said Vinay Saxena, an auditor based in Ghaziabad. His wife Dr Shweta Saxena, added, “The quality of food was good, and there were so many options for everyone to savour. The flavours seemed very authentic to me. I am glad I came here with my family to wrap up 2023.”

“I tried the kesariya doodh and tamatar chaat at the UP stall and patthar ka gosht at the Hyderabad stall. I enjoyed the flavours and the quality of the food was impeccable,” says Fardeen, who visited the festival after eight years.

While some visitors enjoyed the variety of zaike, others also attended the Chaupal- a panel discussions on topics relating to the street food culture like gastronomy tourism, hygiene in street food and more.