No food festival buzz for TS day

Denizens of Hyderabad have had tasty Telangana dishes to celebrate the State Formation Day with for the last three years. This year, however, with less than 10 days to go for June 2, no activity is being seen on conducting of Telangana food festivals.

The Telangana food festival used to be organised on Necklace Road for over a week, where authentic and native recipes and snacks of Telangana and Hyderabad were served. Last year, noted hotels in the city were made part of this initiative.

Besides, hotels, that were decorated for the occasion, served a few tasty Telangana recipes and snacks in their lunch and dinner menus.

With little over a week to go for June 2, there is no buzz and even hotels have confirmed it.

“Last year, a series of meetings were held with hotel associations on how to conduct the State Formation Day in a grand scale. We are still waiting to hear from the tourism department on this,” representative of a hotel association said.

When asked about this, tourism secretary B. Venkatesham said food festivals are very much part of the Formation Day celebration plans. “We will be shortly convening a meeting with stakeholders on how to go about this,” he said.

He was critical of hotels for asking money from the government for illuminating their hotels during the formation day week.

Some popular Telangana dishes and snacks: Naatu kodi koora, nalli bokka koora, mamsam vepudu, bheja fry and boti fry, mutton paya curry, bagara rice, mudda pappu, pachhi pulusu, jonna gatkha, sarva pindi, sakinalu