Fairway Colombo starts the year Desi style

Saturday, 9 February 2019 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Deputy High Commissioner of India in Sri Lanka Dr. Shilpak N. Ambule (third from left) and wife with Fairway Colombo and Indian High Commission officials

First Street Food Festival with Indian food
Next food festival in last weekend of February

By Ruwandi Gamage

Fairway Colombo City Hotel’s first Street Food Festival for the year kicked off as an Indian Food Festival, celebrating 150 years of Mahatma Gandhi at Hospital Street. The successful event saw a massive crowd visiting over the weekend, local and foreign alike, all who had a love for Indian food.

We tried a few of the options offered by the venders at the venue, starting off with a classic Chicken Biryani. Made with spiced, mixed rice, with a good portion of chicken, raita and green chilli coconut sambol, it was the best dish of the day. The combination of raita with the spiced mixed rice was an absolute delicacy.

We tasted three rotti dishes: Butter Naan with BBQ Chicken, served with one naan and a generous barbequed chicken thigh with gravy; Mini Exchange curry pot which was a spicy black chicken curry served in a clay pot with two paratas; and Aloo Parata with Chikka Masala, which was one of the vegetarian options for the evening.

The black spicy chicken curry was a favourite as it was super spicy and all of us have a knack for spice. The best parata dish was the vegetarian option, as it had a flavoursome Chikka Masala and a cucumber and raita salad.

The other vegetarian dish was the last one we tasted, Masala Dosa with a beautiful sambar and an Ulundu Vadai with red chilli coconut sambol. The dosa was fresh and coupled well with the sambar which was delicious. The Ulundu Vadai was soft and fresh and didn’t disappoint.

We missed on the opportunity to taste Gulab Jamuns; since we went on the last day of the festival, they were all sold out. However, we were full and satisfied with a lovely Indian dinner for the evening. Though we had to get our hands messy to dig into the naans and paratas, the food was flavoursome, the company was delightful and the atmosphere was that out of a Bollywood movie with Hindi music playing in the background.

Fairway Colombo City Hotel must be commended for its initiative for the alternatives used instead of plastic; we loved that all dishes were served on either paper plates or aluminium foil boxes and the cutlery was wooden. The only use of plastic visible were the plastic water bottles and plastic cups the cold drinks were served in, sold at the venue by only a couple of venders.

Be on the lookout for the next Street Food Festival by Fairway Colombo City Hotel on the last weekend of this month.

Pix by Ruwan Walpola