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200 women chef participate in Shillong Food Festival

By RAJU DAS

SHILLONG, Dec 4 - From a bird made of sweet potato to a nest made out of noodles, the Rilbong Food Festival on Saturday drew some of the best chefs, who not only displayed their culinary skills, but also their creative side in making art out of food.

There were over 200 participants in different categories that included mutton, chicken, pork, fish � fresh & dry dishes in the non-vegetarian category. There was also the vegetarian category and added to this was the �live� cooking contest where participants cooked at the festival site.

This popular food festival in Rilbong here is being held after a gap of 14 years. The festival was open to only women contestants.

Apart from the regular contest, there were various other contests which involved visitors to identify different Indian spices, answer a questionnaire on table manners, identifying Indian thalis and a general questionnaire on different aspects of food.

Some of the participants came out with extraordinary displays that included a mutton keema dish made in the shape of a fish. Sitting next to the dish was some birds made out of sweet potato and the nest made with noodles and eggs made out of potato.

�The potatoes, noodles and sweet potato were boiled and were given the shape of the nest. The potatoes were cut and a cavity was built and masalas used in the mutton keema dish were put in for the judges to see,� Pratima Debroy, a participant and who won a special prize, said.

Jhuma Das, who won the second prize in dry fish category made a Barbie doll with the dry fish chutney complete with frills. She said, that she used small silvery dry fish to make the Barbie dolls frills and added red chillies to give design and colour to it.

Mamata Ghosh, who won the first prize in the chicken dish category, made chiken tikka with tender coconut. �I am so happy, I have worked till 2 am for this dish. I am exhausted, but I am full of energy now,� she said.

J Rani won the first prize in the �live� cooking category. Apart from winning a cash award of Rs 5,000, she also won an additional cash prize of Rs 5,000 from the sponsors.

Participants who received the first prize got a cash prize of Rs 5000 each and other gifts. The second prize winners received Rs 3,000. In the non-competitive categories prizes were handed out that included microwave ovens and utensils.

Former Home Minister RG Lyngdoh inaugurated the food festival in the morning. Judges included people from various walks of life that included bureaucrats, doctors, socialites and others.

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