The aro­mas of roast­ed spices, fire­wood smoke and siz­zling oil filled the air yes­ter­day, as the Na­tion­al Coun­cil of In­di­an Cul­ture (NCIC) opened its three-day Food Fair and Ar­ti­san Mar­ket at the Di­vali Na­gar site in Ch­agua­nas.

In­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tor De­oroop Teemal, who al­so serves as the NCIC’s pres­i­dent, of­fi­cial­ly de­clared the event open and spoke pas­sion­ate­ly about the pow­er of cui­sine to tran­scend cul­tur­al bound­aries.

“Cui­sine has played a sig­nif­i­cant role in bring­ing peo­ple to­geth­er to ex­pe­ri­ence each oth­er’s spe­cif­ic dish­es and share each oth­er’s tal­ents,” he told Guardia Me­dia yes­ter­day as the coun­try ob­served the In­di­an Ar­rival Day hol­i­day.