40-year-old Saiprakash Kulkarni left his outdoor media job four years ago to start a fish supplying business. According to him, his community's CKP food festival helped him to grow his business further and reach out to a larger audience.
In order to promote their traditional cuisine, members from Chandraseniya Kayastha Prabhu (CKP) community have organised the 4th edition of CKP food festival in Thane's CKP Hall. According to the organisers, the food festival is not only a good way to promote their food culture but also helps the community members to grow their food business by meeting and interacting with different people.
40-year-old Saiprakash Kulkarni left his outdoor media job four years ago to start a fish supplying business. According to him, his community's CKP food festival helped him to grow his business further and reach out to a larger audience.
"My love for seafood made me switch my career. The CKP community helped me to get into this business. In 2013, I started supplying food to my relatives and nearby people. In 2014, I could supply food to as many stall owners as possible during the festival. Since then there has been no looking back. I have been supplying fish to many food eateries and fish markets in the city at a wholesale price," said Kulkarni.
Majority of the fish delicacies available are Seer fish (surmai), Bombay Duck, Prawn, Black Pomfret (halwa) to name a few. While CKP community's non-vegetarian dishes are popular, according to the members, the vegetarian dishes are also lip-smacking. The vegetarian dishes include broad beans gravy (valache birde), broad beans pulao (valachi khichdi), shevlachi bhaji to name a few.
Speaking about how the idea of the food festival came about, Sameer Gupte, a festival organiser, said, "I am a food lover and like to taste all kinds of food from different communities. In Mumbai and Thane there are not too many eateries where we can eat traditional food. This thought inspired me to start the food festival so that people from various communities can come together under one roof to taste the traditional food."
He also added, "Our community likes to bond over food. We have a specific CKP masala which makes our food unique and represents our community."
Majority of the CKP community's population is based in Dadar, Thane, Dombivli and Kalyan. The food festival which began on January 20 will go on till Sunday.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
 "CKP food festival")
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}