Restaurants dish out fancy food for Navratri festival

New Delhi: A selection of gastronomical delicacies are on offer at various city based restaurants, who are going all out to cater to the special food requirements of those celebrating the festival of Navratri. Restaurants are modifying their menus to suit the special dietary requirements of patrons, who choose to eschew certain food items during the period of the festival. Govindas, situated at the Iskcon temple complex here has a spread that includes "rasgulla sabji", "fruit vegetable", "Kela ki kheer", "pineapple halwa", "singara ki barfi", "papita vegetable", "fruit dahi bhalla", "idli", "tomato carrot soup". "We are organising a Navratra food festival till October 1. We serve buffet and offer 20 per cent discount on it. The menu is changed everyday serving different dishes," says Laghu Radha, Assistant Director, Govindas. Apart from buffets, platters include a mix of beverages mainly lassi and thandai as well as salads, snacks, vegetables, 'sabudana pulao', 'khichdi', 'kattu puri', and sweets like a special 'samvat kheer' and 'lauki kofta'. "We make 25-30 items with different menu everyday in lunch and dinner, people throng to our restraint here to have different varieties," says Radha. Restaurants like Haldiram are also offering sumptous Thalis during all the nine days. The especially designed delicacies include a 'Navratra Thali' which consists of 'Malai Paneer', 'Singara parantha', 'curd' and a Bengali sweet (Chum-chum). The other food items on offer are 'sabudana aloo tikki', 'tawa aloo chaat' and 'chaat papdi'.