The fifth Cuisine Festival opened at 23/9 Park in Ho Chi Minh City on December 26 to promote Vietnamese and international cuisine to domestic and foreign visitors.

The festival attracted 43 businesses from 18 countries and territories, including Cambodia, Japan, Thailand, Turkey, China, Italy, Malaysia and Singapore. The Republic of Korea introduced its cuisine and culture through presenting their traditional costumes, teaching how to cook fried noodles, tokbuki, and organising a “RoK-Vietnam cuisine exchange” seminar.

The event, organised by the Municipal Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the Municipal Tourism Association and the Youth Advertising Company, is part of the programme to welcome the New Year. A wide range of activities include a street parade with a large number of amateur and professional artists, bartender performances, making of Vietnam’s biggest rice pancake and presenting delicious dishes of 18 countries.

There will also be special performances by artists from the RoK, Russia, Germany and Vietnam, and a fashion show with Vietnamese ao dai (traditional long dress) and ao Ba Ba (shirt worn by South Vietnamese women), Korean handbok, Japanese kimono, and traditional costumes of other countries.

The festival will last until January 2, 2011.