A culinary festival featuring delicious dishes from countries throughout the world opened in Ho Chi Minh City on December 3.

The festival, the city’s largest cultural and gastronomic event this year, is to draw attention to Vietnamese cuisine, enable visitors to experience other cultures and foods.

The highlight of the event is a street festival where the story of “banh chung, banh day” (Vietnamese square and round rice cakes) is re-enacted accompanied by musicians and dancers from different countries.

From December 3-6, a number of renowned chefs from 17 participating countries, including the Republic of Korea, Indonesia, Thailand, Italy, France, Germany, India, Mexico and Lebanon, will introduce their delicious specialities to visitors.

An international pizza-making contest will also held, and an attention the record for Vietnam’s largest deep-fried sticky-rice patty will be made. Several leading chefs from Vietnam and other countries will compete for the Most Talented Chef 2009 title.