Annual food festival comes to town this weekend

According to organizers, the HCMC Department of Tourism and the Saigontourist Holding Company, the annual festival will introduce attendees to various types of Vietnamese wines at the Vietnam Wine House. Visitors can sample 39 varieties of traditional wines from the country’s northern and southern regions.

Chiem Thanh Long, director of Binh Quoi Tourist Park, said that organizers have traveled throughout the country to collect the featured wines, which are made from rice, corn and sticky rice.

Visitors will also be able to sample wines made from different vegetation such as pomelos, coconuts and cashews.

“We saw many interesting wines, tools and methods on our cross-country trip,” Long said. “We want to introduce to visitors a complete view of Vietnamese wines.”

The organizing committee will also collaborate with doctors and experts to coordinate forums about understanding culture through various products and the positive affects of wine on health.

The festival’s main event is Taste of the World, which features foods from 29 international restaurants and cultural activities from 17 countries including China, France, Russia, Malaysia, India, Australia and Italy.

There will be cooking demonstrations by the Saigon Professional Chefs Club, a cocktail performance by the Saigon Bartenders Club, various talks about cuisine and game shows.

Deputy Director of the Tourism Department La Quoc Khanh said that the festival will hold a special event to present a traditional Russian wedding to Saigonese.

“It is an actual wedding and not a performance,” said Khanh. “The couple came to the city for the wedding and we are using this opportunity to introduce Saigonese to traditional Russian weddings.”

During last year’s festival, nearly 200 chefs from the Saigon Professional Chefs’ Club constructed a 103 - meter long spring roll, which earned the title of Longest Fresh Spring Roll in Vietnam from Vietbooks.

Following the success of last year’s record-setting event, the organizing committee is working with Cau Tre enterprise to establish a new record for Vietnam’s Longest Fried Spring Roll, which will span 36 meters in length and 30 centimeters in diameter. Unlike a fresh spring roll, chefs must fry the spring roll in a large frying pan. To see firsthand how a giant spring roll is constructed, attend the event at 2.00pm this Saturday.

Van Thanh Tourist Park is located at 48/10 Dien Bien Phu Street, Ward 22, Binh Thanh District, HCMC.

(Source: SGT)