Delhi just hosted the ultimate food festival for street food lovers and it pulled quite the crowd. National Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI) recently organised the 13th edition of the National Street Food Festival, a three-day event held at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium that is set to conclude today, December 31. Roughly 400 street food sellers from 28 states set up 120 stalls at the food fest, and it also saw participation from countries such as Afghanistan, Turkey and Nepal.
“We want the street food culture to remain in the hands of the vendors. We want food streets in every city,” said Arbind Singh, national coordinator, of the National Association of Street Vendors of India (Nasvi) at a press conference on Tuesday. The festival typically experiences a footfall of 75,000 people and features some of the most popular street food delicacies along with cult local items, like Banarasi tamaatar chaat, gur jalebi from Bihar, Kashmiri kahwa tea, Champaran mutton, Jaipuri pyaz kachori and dozens of other options.
The festival is aimed at showcasing hidden gems, underrated regional delicacies and cult vendors from different parts of India. The National Street Food Festival returned last year with its 12th edition after a three-year hiatus, which was the result of the pandemic. Like last year, Gulab Singh, a street food seller who has sat at India Gate since 1976, was also made a part of the event.
Celebrity chef Kunal Kapur visited the festival and sampled some of the finest street food options, from litti to kebabs. Foodies who visited the festival took to social media to gush over some regional delicacies which are not widely available across India, such as Locho (a popular chana dal snack from Surat), Siddu (a Himachali wheat flour bread), Kaju karam dosa from Andhra Pradesh and more.
A particular highlight this year was the addition of international street food sellers, from Turkey, Afghanistan, Nepal and some other countries. Sirkeci Osman, a street food seller from Turkey rustled up some Turkish flatbreads, while chapli kebabs, saffron tea and mantu dumplings from Afghanistan also found some takers.
The food festival is also being referred to as the first zero-waste street food festival’ in India, Special arrangements were made for the disposal of leftover food items and customers have used leaf and bamboo-based cutlery which are compostable. The festival also saw performances by comic satire poet Shambhu Shikhar, folk singer Neha Rathore and other artists.