Dilara Hamit
23 October 2019•Update: 24 October 2019
ANKARA
The Indian Embassy in Ankara organized a food festival on Wednesday to introduce their cuisine to Turkish citizens.
The food cooked by Chef Balram Jaiswal, who came to Turkey from New Delhi for the event, was praised by the guests.
"We have food from almost all states of India, we have touched different states and brought it to this buffet so that everyone can enjoy the aroma from India.
"Today's main dishes are Malabari fish which is cooked with curry, baked chicken curry, chickpea curry and Indian lamb dish," Jaiswal said.
He said Indian food is originally very spicy but to cater to international tastes he kept the spices mild.
"I'm glad to bring the taste of India to Turkey, I hope the people enjoy it too," Jaiswal added.
Two Finnish guests, Tiina Hakala-Gros and Sussanna Malinen told Anadolu Agency that they love Indian food.
"I really like Indian food I usually order it in Ankara, there are couple places to eat Indian food when you have the cravings for it.
"My favorite food is Palak paneer, spinach cooked with cheese. I used to cook this in Finland and my kids also loved it," Hakala-Gros said.
Malinen said she came from New Delhi to Ankara this year.
"I turned vegetarian in India and it has been three years and in Turkey its hard to find vegetarian food so Indian food has been saving me.
"When I use to go out [in Delhi] in restaurants even when I told them to put less spices there would be a lot of spice and now I learned to say: 'no spices', but now in Turkey I miss the spices," Malinen said.
She added that her favorite food was Biryani, aromatic rice cooked with meat on low heat, and paneer, cottage cheese cooked in spicy curry.
Vanaja Thekkat, a diplomat from the Indian embassy, said they wanted to introduce popular Indian food to people which is why they organized the food festival.
"Turkish people and the international community in Ankara have shown great interest to the event," Thekkat said.
