Coimbatore:Twenty types of pickles, 10 vegetarian and 10 non-veg, are the major attraction at the five-day Kerala Food Festival which began at Poppys Hotel here.

The `Kerala Naadan Bhakshana Mela’ would be a platform to savour authentic God’s Own Country cuisine, providing a multitude of both vegetarian and non-veg dishes of fish, poultry and red meat with rice as a typical accompaniment, hotel operation manager R Jayaraman said.

The festival would include a lavish buffet spread that would serve afull-course meal from the welcome drink to dessert, with 67 dishes across live counters, he said.

Buffet specialties included Malabari crab soup, patcha mangai mulagu podi ettathu, chutta kozhi, thengai salad, kadachakka cutlet, meen peera, Thalassery kozhi biriyani, nei choru, with live counters serving appam, dosa, puttu, poratta, mathi (sardine) fry and desserts, he said.

Executive chef S Raja had served as celebrity chef in various hotels in India and overseas, Jayaraman said.The festival was inaugurated by clinical director of women’s centre,

Dr Mirudhubashini Govindarajan and Managing Director KS Govindarajan last night.