"Chinese food is much more than just noodles" — this is the message the consulate general of China in Kolkata is sending out to promote the food festival to be held at Swabhumi from January 16 to 18.

The festival, sponsored by the Consulate General, will include stalls and special offers from all leading Chinese restaurants in the city. Some of the popular restaurants that will participate are Mainland China, Red Hot Chilli Pepper, Beijing, Big Boss and Golden Joy.

Five-star hotels have organised their own Chinese food festivals occasionally, but this is the first that many leading Chinese restaurants have come together to organise a festival.

The city is noted for having a large Chinese community and numerous Chinese eateries. Nowadays, the population of the Chinese community in Kolkata is surely shrinking but their age-old business, of Chinese restaurants, is still booming. If you visit Tangra, on weekends, you can see for yourself the number of people lining up to have a taste of lip-smacking Chinese delicacies.

The businesses of some of the Indian-Chinese restaurants are flourishing because of the popular fast-food lifestyle that is prevalent in urban Kolkata. So, many of these restaurant proprietors are planning to open up branches in Beijing and Shanghai as well.

Most of the local Chinese people in the city are naturalized Indian citizens. And many in the community were happy to hear words of praise from Abdus Sattar, state minister for minorities, at the reception of the Chinese Spring Festival last year, when Sattar said that Chinese people in Kolkata are very hard working and peaceful-loving.

As a mark of recognition of their contribution to the city's multicultural milieu, representatives of the local Chinese have also been invited at the receptions of Independence Day and Republic Day at Raj Bhavan since last year.

(Courtesy: Hindustan Times, January 15, 2008)