Ambassadors Helen Elsa Zordale (Greece), Maria Del Carmen De Corquera (Spain), Charalambos Panaydes (Cyprus), Haji Nourdene bin Haji Ahmed (Brunei), Mohamed Al Munther Al Dharif (Tunisia), Mohamed Morsy Awad (Egypt), deputy chef de mission of Thailand embassy R Chirapat and Second Secretary of Indonesian embassy N Sucepto are seen with regional director of LuLu Hypermarket Group Mohamed Althaf, at the inauguration of the Lulu Food Festival at Lulu Hypermarket, Al Gharafa yesterday. PICTURE: Noushad Thekkayil
As part of its ongoing food fiesta, LuLu Hypermarket, Al Gharafa is holding a series of events namely Mediterranean Food Festival, Mexican Delights and Asian Food Festival.
The idea behind the whole festival, which was inaugurated yesterday in the presence of senior community members, diplomats among others, is to showcase Mediterranean, Mexican and Asian food products to the local community.
This is the 10th successive year that the LuLu Hypermarket Group is organising a food festival in Qatar.
According to a company announcement, Mediterranean cuisine is governed by a confluence of several cultures and food habits of the Mediterranean countries that are influenced by one another. As the point of intersection between Asia, Europe and Africa, with diverse civilisations located in each area, the Mediterranean region was destined to become a major trading hub with traders in ancient times exchanging commodities like spices and other food items.
Mediterranean cuisine is characterised by its flexibility, its range of ingredients and its many regional variations. Seafood is prominent in many of the standard recipes and the overarching characteristics of the cuisine are largely shaped by the climate and geography of the region. The sunny, mild Mediterranean climate yields an agricultural bounty that heavily influences the vegetable-dominant cuisines of the region.
Mexican food is also getting increasingly popular. It is more of a fusion of the European culinary style and Latin American ingredients. The traditional Mexican cuisine is a comprehensive cultural model comprising of planting and harvesting, to cooking and eating. Native ingredients such as varieties of tomatoes, squashes, avocados, cocoa and vanilla augment the basic staples. Mexican street food is also quite popular. One attraction of the street food in Mexico is satisfying hunger without all the social and emotional connotation of eating at home. The best known among Mexico’s street food include tacos, soups, sopes, tlacoyos, gorditas and sincronizadas. For most dishes, it is the variety of chili that gives it, its main flavour, according to the fiesta organisers.
An official of the LuLu management said the festival will continue for a week. The festival of food will culminate with a cookery contest scheduled for April 28.
