HA NOI (VNS)— A vegetarian food festival with lots of other cultural activities will be opened today in Ha Noi to help raise awareness of a regimen that is both healthy and good for the environment.

The festival will feature 25 booths serving vegetarian food and displaying organic fruits and vegetables, and materials to cook vegetarian dishes. Visitors will also have a chance to enjoy cooking demonstrations and learn about how to improve their health by combining the practise of yoga with a vegetarian diet.

Nguyen Thanh Loan, director of Viet Nam Himalaya Co., the organiser of the event, said she has nurtured the idea of the festival for a long time and, after successful events in HCM City, decided to bring it to Ha Noi.

"People who eat meat may think vegetarian food isn't tasty, but I believe that spices give the taste to a dish," Loan said. "Well-spiced tofu is more delicious than vapid meat."

She has also participated in a vegetarian food festival in a province in Thailand which celebrates the event annually to commemorate a past epidemic and famine that was broken when the people prayed, promising to keep a 10-day meatless fast.

"I was surprised when I saw people hanging yellow flags in the province as a sign of the festival," she said. "People eat vegetarian food for 10 days, and all markets and supermarkets only sell vegetarian food."

Loan said the organisers were vegans so that they carefully selected the foods to introduce visitors.

"We chose 100 different vegetarian dishes to serve and guarantee that people who don't usually eat vegetarian food will enjoy them," she said.

The festival will run from 8am to 9pm between November 24-28 at the Viet Nam Exhibition Centre, 2 Hoa Lu Street in Ha Noi. Admission is free. — VNS