While tasting the food, visitors could chat with people from countries whose dishes are from, learn about their ingredients and cooking methods, and discover the cultural stories behind each dish.
Ella, a visitor from Sweden, said: “The atmosphere is really great. I feel like everyone is really happy. There're a lot of good foods to try which is very exciting. I was at Argentina. We went to Palestine, and to Italy to get ice cream and Korea. The favorite is Palestine. The falafel was really good."
The Malaysian stall attracted many visitors to taste Nasi Lemak, a national dish of coconut milk rice served with anchovies, peanuts, eggs, and other accompaniments. Zaki Ghani, a representative from the Malaysian Embassy in Hanoi, said: “We have our culture, our food that we want to share with the crowds today. We have Nasi Lemak which is our national dish. We also have curry puff, spring roll or you call it nem here. Also in our cultural booth, we have some traditional games like Wau Bulan or kites. We have Malaysia chess."
Ghani introduced Nasi Lemak, one of favorite foods for Malaysian. "It's a combination of rice cooked with coconut milk. It comes with the condiments like anchovies, peanuts, and egg. And to make it more tastier, you can have it with fried chicken.”
The Bangladesh representatives brought to the festival Shingara, a very popular triangular pastry filled with vegetables and spices. Nasreen Sultana Baby from the Embassy of Bangladesh said: “It’s triangle and has some vegetable inside. A little bit spicy. Almost every people liked it.”
The Festival demonstrated convincingly that food is a universal language through which people can connect and share their cultures.
