November 6h to 14h will see our spice island celebrating this aspect of its serendipity.

The Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) organizes the fourth World Spice Food Festival on a much grander scale than its annual food festivals since 2005. As the Minister of Tourism Promotion, Faizer Musthapha said, this is the year in which the food festival is celebrated with freedom from terrorism in the country, with people able to move about freely and more tourists coming to spend time here.

Many events have been organized for the festival. Most important of course is the Hawker Street type of food presentation on the Galle Face Green called Global Spice Food Village.

The green will come alive with twelve major hotels and six restaurants in and around Colombo having specialty food stalls with chefs already employed in the hotels or flown across to serve various culinary delights ranging from Singaporean to Jaffna dishes to Thai, Cuban and Vietnamese, to name but a few. Each of the hotels and restaurants will serve food of a particular country so you can get a taste of eighteen different national cuisines. Raja Bojun will the presenter of Sinhala dishes. So from Nov. 6 – 8 step out on the Galle Face Green and savour the cuisine. Plenty of seats will be available under a huge marquee. Parking will be accommodated too. If you are a HSBC cardholder the bonus of concessionary rates is yours. Live music and cultural shows are also on the agenda.

The food festival then moves on to the individual hotels where the chefs will offer their specialty dishes for a further six days from Nov. 9 - 14.

A second activity organized by the SLTDA is an art competition where the painting/ colouring material has to be extracted from spices. Entry pictures will be exhibited on Galle Face Green on Nov. 6 from 7.00 to 10.00 p.m. Yet another competition will select the most innovative signature crab dish produced within an hour – the Sri Lanka Crab Cooking competition. This is scheduled for Nov. 7 at 7.00 p m, again on the Green.

At the media conference on Oct. 27 in the Galle Face Hotel Jubilee Room, the website www.worldfoodspicefestival.com was launched. This ambitious promotion of our Island through its spices and food is principally sponsored by HSBC and by Sri Lankan, Cargills, Mlesna and Alpha Orient Lanka.

The well attended media conference had Faizer Mustapha - Minister of Tourism Promotion; George Michael - Secretary to the Ministry of Tourism; Nick Nicolaou –CEO, HSBC, Sri Lanka and the Maldives; Bernard Goonetilleke - Chairman, SLTDA and SLTPB, making their short addresses.

Upali de Silva, Director, Standards and Quality Assurance, SLTDA, and Head of the Steering Committee for the Festival made a presentation about the Festival. After clarifying what the spice food festival was targeted to be and what events were to take place, he said: "In organizing this annual event, our aim is to ensure that Sri Lanka as a destination is better equipped to serve a variety of visitors to the country, as well as the local community, who seek to enrich their culinary experience. We invite everyone to come and experience a tantalizing array of food items brought together at one venue." Approximately 2,000 persons participated in last year’s food festival. This year, he said, 10,000 are expected. That large a number can be accommodated in the vastness of the selected venue.

Answering a question from a media person, Upali de Silva assured that parking for vehicles will be available. The minister added to this that security maintained on roads though the war was ended and terrorist leaders eliminated, was necessary and a measure taken to ensure the safety of the public.

More details about World Spice Food Festival could be got from Gaya Nagahawatte - Media Coordinator - or of course from the website.