JEDDAH — To educate and increase the awareness of Saudi and international community living in Jeddah about the Czech food tradition and heritage, a five- day Czech Food Festival will be held starting today (March 19) at the InterContinental Hotel Jeddah. The Honorary Consul of the Czech Republic, Hussein Shobokshi, said "this festival would promote tourism of Czech Republic, education of Czech Republic and trade with the Czech Republic. If people will have food, then it will break a lot of barriers and encourage them to visit and meet people in the Czech Republic. Food is very important cultural and traditional message and the Czech Republic is a very rich country in heritage and history. It has variety of food influenced by many neighboring countries." The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Germany, Austria, Slovakia and Poland. Prague is the capital and largest city. He said "when you experience the food, you will get the cultural experience of the country and it will increase the visit and business with locals. In fact, it's a way to invite people towards Czech Republic." Michael Walter, Executive Chef at InterContinental, along with executive chef from Prague Tomas Pechacek and other Czech food experts, will display traditional Czech food in all five days of the fest. New dishes will be prepared every day during the festival and none will be repeated to maintain diversity so guests can indulge in the richness of Czech cuisine. Potato soup, dumplings, dark cabbage were among the many dishes at the festival. "We have seen the increase after our first two festivals. We have managed to get Czech direct flight from Riyadh to Prague, and there are ongoing plans on issuing a direct flight from Jeddah too." "Food festival is translated as good for business and tourism for Czech Republic. The numbers of visas increased from 1,300 to 7000 in one year, with a a lot of visitors going there." Traditional Czech dishes will be served for lunch and dinner in the fest so as to raise awareness and information about the country," Shobokshi added.
