FOOD is one of the best ways to help people learn about other cultures and traditions, and the Pre Šamorín / For Šamorín civic association, which organised its first year of the Festival of Culinary Traditions of Ethnic Minorities in Šamorín, seeks to do just that.
“At eight in the morning (on June 1), we drove along the streets with a horse-drawn carriage where Gypsy music played and we invited inhabitants to the festival,” Agnesa Tóthová, chairperson of the association, told the TASR newswire. Members of ethnic minorities, including Ruthenians, Croats, Russians, Hungarians and Roma, started cooking at 9:00, Tóthová said, adding that traditional dishes like piroh (stuffed pies), borsht, halászlé (fish soup) and pig’s trotters with paprika sauce were made.
The cooking was accompanied by a special cultural programme, which lasted until 18:00 and included domestic and foreign children’s and adult’s dance, as well as music ensembles and choirs. The meals were judged in the afternoon.
Tóthová explained that the main goal of the festival is to introduce traditional and good-quality meals, as well as the cultures of people’s ancestors, to young people so that they are familiar with more than just pre-packaged meals. She said that the civic association invited all minorities living in Slovakia, but not all of them were able to come, for various reasons. “But they promised to definitely come next year,” Tóthová concluded.
