Curry Festival makes debut at Blacktown Showground
THE delicious aroma of curries from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh, will spice up Blacktown Showground on Sunday. With Pani Puri the specialty on Saturday.
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THE delicious aroma of curry will spice up Blacktown Showground on September 11 — a day after the Pani Puri Mela at the same location.
Blacktown’s inaugural Curry Festival will bring together chefs from across western Sydney who will cook up their favourite dishes.
Organiser Bikram Cheema said visitors could sample a range of curry from countries including India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh.
“It’s just about bringing people together to taste great curry,” he said.
“The food is much cheaper than it is in the restaurants.”
After delighting Hills residents at last year’s Curry Festival in Castle Hill, Mr Cheema was inspired to bring the popular event to Blacktown.
“Firstly I’m local, I live in Blacktown city,” he said. “It’s a very multicultural and vibrant community.”
Last year’s Curry Festival at Castle Hill attracted 15,000 people.
About 100kg of butter chicken and 650 samosas were eaten — and that was just one stall.
By 1pm all 25 stalls had sold out of food.
Mr Cheema said he was expecting Blacktown’s Curry Festival to be just as popular.
“We’re expecting close to 10,000 people this year.’’
Aside from the food, there will be Bollywood dancing, traditional clothing stalls, henna tattoos and rides for children.
The Blacktown Advocate was given a sneak peak of some of the curries ahead of the event.
Resham Singh, head chef and owner of Haveli Indian Restaurant in Harris Park, served a delectable array of dishes. We sampled the creamy and flavoursome butter chicken and lamb rogan josh, which Mr Singh said was among the most popular curries.
For those who like it hot, the vindaloo is a popular dish. The vegetarian dishes including the tangy paneer tikka and the more-ish palak paneer are perfect with fresh garlic naan.
Mr Singh is taking part in the Curry Festival again after selling out of their dishes twice last year. It’s no wonder the customers keep coming back for more.
“We change our menu according to feedback from customers and what they like,” Mr Singh said.
PANI PURI MELA
Blacktown’s first Pani Puri Mela celebrates the popular street snack.
Event organiser Bikram Cheema describes the snack as an Indian “dumpling with “spicy water and sauce”.
“It’s my favourite food,” Mr Cheema said.
The crispy bite-sized puris are usually filled with potato, chickpeas and onion then drenched in a spicy water flavoured with mint and other herbs.
The mela is a free event with two Bollywood movies also to be screened on the day.
The stalls will serve pani puri and chaat to give the “ultimate street food experience”.
“There is one stall that will have seven different kinds of water to flavour the pani puri.”
There will also be children’s amusement rides, an open dance floor and DJs.
Mr Cheema said he had received a good response on Facebook and expects the event to be popular.
Details
The Pani Puri Mela will be held on September 10 at Blacktown Showground from 1pm to 6.30pm.
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