Culinary experience awaits at annual Regional Food Festival at Main Street

The length, breadth, and depth of Georgetown, Guyana, was drenched with the aromas of foods from several countries at the annual Regional Food Fair along Main Street Georgetown Guyana. The event runs from October 2 to 6, 2024.
The event is a celebration of the rich tapestry of flavours from Guyana and the wider Caribbean and brings together local chefs, artisans, and food enthusiasts to showcase their culinary talents and to provide a firsthand glimpse of the variety of cuisines on sale.

With all the special seasonings that emanated from the food stalls, the Guyana Times went down to Main Street, which offered an exciting culinary experience with a variety of delicious food options from around the region.
Standing mere metres away from the entry sign of the festival was the owner of Suriname based business – Sana’s Cuisines, Sadhna Ramsaran, who explained her journey from Suriname to Guyana to sell her dishes
According to Sadhna, her business came about when she and her husband took a simple trip to Guyana, when they craved for Surinamese food in Guyana, but they were not successful.
“Well, I should say it was destiny because we came for something else, and then we ended up doing food, we were looking for Surinamese food, but it was very hard, so one day my husband and I sat down and I said, what if we give it a try to cook some Surinamese food and sell it, and well the rest is history.”
She added that the food fair has brought her an experience she has never had before, as an array of nice people have been coming by her food stall leaving her constantly sold out.
“It’s really nice; we meet new people, and we encounter new cultures, and there’s so much different food over here too. It’s really nice; we hear a lot of good stuff, especially about the food, our foods are very cheap, and the people love our food because we are always sold out.”

However, as she seeks to expand the territories of her business by selling dishes in Guyana, she mentioned that sourcing the ingredients in Guyana is quite a hard task to undertake.
“Most of the ingredients actually aren’t available here, so we have to gather them from Suriname that is the hard part.”
Amidst this dilemma, she goes far and beyond to bring some of the famous Surinamese food to the people.
“We have a lot of famous foods that people come out to taste especially our Surinamese chicken pudding which some people call Dutch chicken pudding and most especially we have Bakabana which is a ripe plantain styled dish.”
Not too far away was one of the youngest local business owners, 23-year-old Dixie Jordan, who was showcasing punche de crème and peppers infused with fruits.
“We manufacture cream liqueurs using products from Guyana. We aspire to showcase Guyana on an international scale and use products from Guyana to create items that can compete with other products outside of Guyana. Dixie’s punche de crème has been in business for four years. We started in the middle of the pandemic, and my sister and I started this company,” she stated.

She also expressed great thanks to the Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS). We are very grateful for the contributions made by the Guyana Bureau of Standards.”
This young talent has also found a way to infuse fruits into pepper sauce, a phenomenon that has not been experienced in Guyana by any other mainstream companies.
“I know that we have a lot of pepper sauce in Guyana and even outside of Guyana, we all know about pepper sauce, but this company wanted to do something different – what if we added fruit to pepper sauce? What do you think will happen? Imagine putting a pineapple pepper sauce on your chicken and then grilling it. You see where we are going with this? Flavor.”
She added that in due time her business will grow into a household name.
“Having the opportunity to enjoy our cuisines and a little bit of everything, we know that there are a lot of Guyanese all over, and when they taste these products, it reminds them of home.”

She added, “These products that we manufacture are for customers like that—customers who live away and miss home. I want to bring something back for them, so they can carry that flavor into whatever they are making. That is the intention behind our brand and company.”
Meanwhile, Bevon Chung – owner of Sea Moss Gel is adding healthy options to the festival with sea moss products on sale.
“This is the sea moss gel. We source our sea moss from St. Lucia and Ireland, I would say that because we are using sea moss that is ocean-grown from St. Lucia, and we infuse it with our local fruits from Guyana.”
“We actually produce and manufacture the sea moss gel here. We distribute it, and we have locations available here in Guyana.”
Beyond the food, this immersive event will feature live musical performances and a lively atmosphere where flavours meet entertainment. The festival will run from midday to midnight each day.