Authentic India at the heart of festival
Anjali Puri says food is always the way to bring people together. Photo: Anne Hardie.
Food is at the heart of any Indian gathering and Anjali Puri wants to celebrate that with a festival of authentic dishes from the north and south of India.
Experience India is on at the Saxton Oval this Sunday and spreads over lunch and dinner with food stalls for both the Indian community and anyone else wanting to learn about Indian food and culture.
The festival follows the Nelson Diwali Festival at Founders Heritage Park last year which attracted about 600 people, and also smaller events aimed at connecting about 700 Indians living in Nelson-Tasman.
Anjali says it can be a struggle for new immigrants to meet people, especially in the regions, and that has prompted her to create events centred around food.
“It’s about keeping the culture and language alive, because that’s your identity.”
At the same time, she wants to show real Indian food to the wider community because it is quite different to what is usually served up to them.
“My food is not spicy or heavy on the stomach, and we should change that perception.”
The festival will have platters called thali created by local Indian chefs, food carts and individuals that include samples of authentic dishes from either the north or south of India.
Anjali says northern India has more wheat-based dishes because it is closer to wheat-growing areas, while the south has more rice-based dishes.
India is so vast that the north and south also has different spices and she wants to show this in the dishes.
For that reason, the festival has been divided into a lunch of south Indian cuisine and a dinner of north Indian cuisine, with tickets sold for each sitting and an MC running the event.
While outside, people can drop in to sample the range of Indian cuisine from the food stalls.
“They will all be making street food that you generally don’t get here in Nelson.”
An exhibition of Indian culture including saris, embroidery, fabric and paintings will be on display outside the Saxton Oval to provide an insight into Indian culture, though Anjali says the focus will be on food.
Tickets can be bought at Eventfinda or enquire about the festival by emailing [email protected]