Along with a perfect blend of good food, DFTF'17 will offer soothing music, flea market, live band performance, RJ, celeb talks and stand up comedy to bring vibrancy to the festival. Siddharth Choudhary reports
The food trucks have been spotted in bits and dots across town but it is now that it is taking shape as a new urban sub-culture with business and shopping districts expected to line up an array of hygienic gourmet food during lunch hour like any other world capital. The Delhi Food Truck Festival which will take place this weekend will be an extravaganza for visitors to relish and indulge in the local, national and international cuisines served by the top food trucks in Delhi-NCR. It focusses on not just food but also on many other aspects such as rain dance, food hunt, music gigs to give it an Indian touch and to create a more wholesome experience. We analyse some of the trends that this festival throws up.
Utility as a business
Over the past few years, Delhi has seen a spurt in food festivals, a trend made popular by the New Delhi Palate Fest, which first brought together pop-up stalls by leading restaurants in Nehru Park over three days in 2014. “This phenomenon is particularly new and famous amongst the youngsters as they seek out variety. In addition to food there is inculcation of many new elements such as music, gigs dances and many more to make it a more wholesome experience,” said Shivangi Gupta, one of the organisers. “It is the perfect fiesta for food and beer fanatics and we cannot wait to meet all food and beverage aficionados. Witlinger is creating fresh avenues to satiate consumers' growing thirst for craft beer with its innovative concepts like Witparty and NowRolling,” said Anuj Kushwah, MD and Founder, Kaama Breweries.
For college student, Praveen Sharma, the trucks reminded him of the vans serving Chinese food in Delhi. “The ambience is informal and it feels like a festival. It also feels cleaner. I enjoyed the momos slathered with schezuan sauce that was served at the last food truck. Unlike the ones that you get in the small roadside joints, the fillings are nice and taste good.”
As a city culture
Food trucks are a part of street food culture in cities such as New York and are slowly attempting to make a mark in Delhi as well. Throngs of office goers, out to grab a quick bite, commuters on their way to board the metro and school kids wanting a snack transformed the place into a food street, complete with chairs and tables to make the experience comfortable.
Though the idea of such festivals are west oriented but the Delhi food festival sure does offer an Indian taste to it. It tries to rejuvenate the glorious era of popular street that was once prevalent in Delhi. So instead of blindly copying the west the festival tries to give an Indian shade to the whole concept so that audience from varied ages can enjoy. The festival has also incorporated ideas such as music gigs “It is going to be a new experience as we will be facing a new kind of audience with their primary focus on food,” said Arohi who is all set to perform at the festival with Jassi Gill.
Delhi food truck v/s other food truck capitals of the world
Although the event is inspired from the great success of the Chicago food truck festival it sure does have an authentic touch to it. “We have incorporated many authentic activities to create a wholesome experience for all kind of audiences,” said Shivangi. When being asked about the festivals success with comparison to the world wide festivals Abhishek, another organiser, exclaimed “We are not focusing on the commercial success but we want all of our guests to have a lot of fun and therefore we place our focus to create this a one-of-a-kind experience and hence cannot be compared to any commercial food truck festival.”
It’s a two day extravaganza from April 14 to 15 at JlN stadium