Hanoi cuisine, craft village festival

The Hanoi Cuisine, Craft Village and Street Festival 2006 opened at the Thong Nhat Park on March 30, with 300 showrooms introducing specialities and handicrafts of Hanoi and some surrounding localities.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Nguyen The Quang, Vice Chairman of the Hanoi People's Committee said that the four-day festival expresses the capital people's determination to build Hanoi into a large tourism centre in the country.

Craft villages and the sophisticated fine art products of the streets showcased in the festival include bronze-carving paintings, art objects, artificial flowers, Hang Trong paintings, silk and brocade clothes and embroidery.

The cuisine area drew the participation of many hotels, restaurants and cooking schools. Visitors can enjoy Hanoian's fine, spicy and colourful dishes such as West Lake crisp shrimp pastry, Vong green rice, La Vong fried fish, Thanh Tri steamed rolls made of rice-flour, noodle soup and other specialities of Hanoi and localities nationwide.

Some craft villages from surrounding provinces including Ha Tay, Bac Ninh, Thai Binh, Nam Dinh and Hai Duong, and many products from France, the Republic of Korea, Thailand, China and Russia are also on display in the festival.

There will be folk performances, traditional boat race and folk games during the festival. Hanoi's tourism businesses and the organising board will organise visits to craft villages and streets, historical sites and landscapes such as Bat Trang ceramic village, Dao Thuc water puppet village, the royal citadel and Hanoi ancient streets, and open countryside tours to Ha Tay and Bac Ninh provinces.

(Source: VNA)