Kathmandu :

Every year on the fifteenth day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar, when the moon is at its brightest, the Chinese celebrate ‘Zhong qui jie’.

Children are told the story of the moon fairy living in a crystal palace, who comes out to dance on the moon’s shadowed surface. Celebrating the spirit of this festive season, Hotel de l’Annapurna is organising ‘Harvest Moon — The Chinese Food Festival’ celebrating the return of the brightest moon of the year.

A dragon welcomes you at the entrance of the restaurant with specially designed red lampshades amidst festoons typically from that part of the world. “It has been our endeavour to provide a variety of cuisines keeping the original taste intact, and the aim of the Chinese Food Festival is to make our people taste some of the spicy and exotic dishes,’’ says Chef Ajay Pathak, the hotel’s Executive Chef.

The Chinese food festival brings you the most delectable of Chinese delicacies for both vegetarians and non-vegetarians.

With starters like crispy fried honey mushrooms (strips of crispy fried mushrooms tossed with honey, garlic and vinegar), Korean paneer to golden fried chicken, prawn and bacon rolls, the chef recommends chicken and asparagus soup (combination of chicken and asparagus flavoured with Chinese spices with cream) before digging in on the entrée. You can then gorge on the shredded fish and chicken (strips of fish and chicken with tri-coloured capsicum) or Millennium rice (combination of noodles and rice with Chinese vegetables and fried garlic) or from the seemingly endless list of gourmet’s gastronomy list.

But the epicurean excitement just doesn’t end there, because you just can’t resist but binge once more on the Dragon Eye (lychees stuffed with dates and served with vanilla ice-cream) for delicious dessert.

The fest is open for lunch and dinner.