Street delights from across India at Delhi food carnival

Lip-smacking delicacies from the country's streets strewn across West Bengal, Punjab, Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Sikkim among other states are served up by street vendors at a festival here.
"We are organising this fest for the public to experience street food and also to catch the eye of government officials and private enterprises to help professionalise street food vendors," Arbind Singh, national coordinator, National Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI) said today.
The three-day festival from December 20 themed "Swad hai, Romanch Hai, Street Foods ki Baat hi Kuch Aur Hai" scheduled at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium has minimum Rs 30 entry ticket.

"We try to bring in various delicacies and to participate every year we invent new varieties of the street food also. All participants have to undergo rigorous training on safety and hygiene," Vasudev Suneja a vendor from Patiala who had won "Most Popular Street food vendor" award at the 2012 festival.
The fare ranges from mouth watering delicacies like Pav Bhaji, Golgappa, Chola Batura cuisines like Pitha from West Bengal, or lassun and Piaz ki Kheer (Garlic and Onion Kheer) from Uttar Pradesh or Lobsters and crabs from Odisha to the famous butter Palao from Punjab.
"It will be an occasion to reassert that the grassroots street food entrepreneurs play a wonderful role in poverty reduction, employment generation and enterprise building and they make cities charming for all," Arbind Singh said.

Special attractions like interactive competitions for children such as poster making, extempore speech, cooking without fire, sing your own food song, writing slogan on promotion of street food and other cultural programs have also been lined up.

"A total of 120 vendors are putting up their stalls and We we will be giving awards and prizes in association with Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) to them," Singh said.
Street food, across the world is widely recognised for being not just palatable, inexpensive and convenient, but also as a large source of employment generation for informal workers.
NASVI, is a network advocacy platform of 740 street vendor bodies, trade unions and community groups across 23 states.

It has started engaging with the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) to train and register street food vendors. In October this year, it organised a huge training of street food vendors on food safety and hygiene here.
"The carnival will be an advocacy event where executives and functionaries of tourism, food processing, health, labour and employment departments and boards will team up with representatives of culinary institutes, development agencies, media and academic institutions to share, acknowledge and celebrate the potentials and possibilities of street food vending," Singh said.