At UN, Peking duck to sticky rice at food fest

The UN Delegates Dining Room will be the site for a Chinese food festival this week, spotlighting long culinary traditions and various cuisines from across the country.

The event, Culinary Perfection for the World: Chinese Food Festival in the United Nations, will offer Chinese food for lunch during the entire week. The dining room does not provide dinner and is open to both UN staffers and the general public.

Food will be cooked by more than a dozen Chinese chefs and dishes include Peking roast duck, lotus root with glutinous rice, Cantonese-style chicken, five-spice smoked fish, and zongzi, a sticky rice dumpling cooked in bamboo leaves traditionally consumed on Dragon Boat Festival, which was on Tuesday in China.

“I like the variety and I like the color of Chinese food,” said Yuval Elbaz, a UN staffer who attended the reception on Tuesday evening. “When I go to China, they put everything on the table and you share it — you taste a little bit of this, a little bit of that. I love Chinese food.”

Xie Zichao, another attendee, said that the selection of dishes at the reception offered a wide glimpse into the different regional cuisines in China.

“I think this was a very special selection of dishes. The presentation was very cool and there were many dishes that I myself have never even tried,” she said. “I think this was a good introduction to Chinese food for western palettes.”

Bettina Tucci Bartsiotas, assistant secretary-general and controller of the Office of Programme Planning, said at the food festival’s opening that the UN welcomes the celebration of Chinese cuisine at its New York headquarter and the festival’s illustrating the importance of Chinese food in the culinary world.

“I think China is known in the world for many things, and one of them is its food. We have all had the opportunity to try it in different forms,” she said.

“Today, we’re going to have an authentic meal here at the United Nations, and that signifies the importance of China at the United Nations and also influence that you had in the culinary world.”

The festival is organized by the China Cuisine Association and the Arawana Brand, which produces cooking oils. “It is of great importance that the leading Chinese grain and oil brand Arawana help enhance China’s image and expand China’s influence through Chinese cuisine,” the company said in a statement.

Jiang Junxian, president of the China Cuisine Association, said at the opening reception that the food festival is part of an effort to highlight the Belt and Road Initiative.

AMY HE / CHINA DAILY A chef demonstrates watermelon carving on Tuesday at the opening reception of the Chinese Food Festival at the UN, which will run through Friday.