India, March 14 -- The spread on offer is special on several counts. Not even a single dish is cooked in oil. Most of them are steamed. The ingredients, like turmeric and bamboo shoot, are organic and freshly sourced from Arunachal Pradesh. The chefs have used leaves like banana and poto (a native leaf), which is good for controlling blood pressure. While most of the dishes in the buffet are non-vegetarian, there is a special section dedicated to the vegetarians.

Executive chef Sanjay's Arunachali cuisine festival at Hotel Ashoka lays out a meal for the city's food connoisseurs from the north-eastern state. For somebody, who specialises in Awadhi at The Oudh, it was an experience preparing the spread. He says, "Initially, we were a bit h...