Kathmandu:

It was a day of merry making. It was a day of family bonding. It was a day of enjoying music and games. It was a day of relishing cuisines from different nations. Above the all it was a day of celebrating life. The sunny day of November 3 was just perfect and 22,674 guests visited The Himalayan Times International Food Festival at BICC that had food from 16 countries.

The event began with distinguished guests — Ambassador of Australia Graeme Lade, Ambassador of Japan Tatsuo Mizuno, Ambassador of Russia Andrey Leonidovich Trofimove, Ambassador of Sri Lanka Sumith Nakandala, Ambassador of Bangladesh, Imtiaz Ahmed, Ambassador of Myanmar Aung Khin Soe, Consular of Korean Embassy Gae Hwe Yang, Deputy chief of mission, Khaled Mohamed Elmenshawy from Embassy of Egypt, and representatives from the organisers Nikesh Sinha, Director APCA, Atul Kokas, Director APCA, Joseph Nathan, Editorial Advisor and Ajay Bhadra khanal of The Himalayan Times releasing balloons.

Soon after there was hardly standing space in front of the 16 food stalls and the games stalls.

“I like the whole concept. People can come and enjoy a day of food, music and games,” said Rajoj Shrestha, a businessman, who was there with his whole family.

Be it the Australian stall with its appetising grilled sausages or the aroma of saffron from the Afghan stall all worked perfectly for the food lovers.

“I’ve tried empanada from the Mexican stall. I’m having pork chops from the German stall and will try Haku chhoyla from the Nepali stall,” said Sagar Ghimire, a big foodie who had come all-alone to enjoy the dishes.

Some were in the queue for the panipuri at the Indian stall, while some were nibbling corn chips.

“This is our first visit and we are longing to try German food,” said Mahima and Deepshikha.

Many got rosy and were all smiles with their favourite drinks — wine, tequila, Margarita, whiskey or the cocktails. Happy hours were on throughout the day.

“I tried the Japanese and Korean food, which were quite tasty. I tried some wine too. I met a lot of people I know and now I think we’ll be playing some games,” said Stuti Basnyet.

“The event is pretty good. It’s a good experience for my son. We’ve tried Thai, Japanese and Korean food and plan to try Italian and some others as well,” said Colonel Manmohan Singh.

Some carried their plates over to the concert area and enjoyed different genres of music being performed by the musicians.

Apart from the fun and food, three lucky winners won the door prize — a microwave oven each, courtesy Samsung. The winning ticket numbers are 07580, 10396 and 14817.

“I like this venue. It’s centrally located and spacious,” said Sunder Maharjan of Anuprastha Band.

It was a day for families.

“We’ve been coming since the first food fest and enjoying ourselves. We tried almost every cuisine, but the ones we liked are Yakitori and Chinese momo,” said a Shrestha family.

Spey Livet Premium Rare Whisky was the main sponsor, with San Miguel Beer as the co-sponsor. The other sponsors were Dabur Real and Jolly. The event was supported by Nepal Tourism Board, Chocofun, Photo Concern and THT Live, with Image FM as the official FM and Image Channel as the official TV channel.