Eat local at Pako Festa
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Eat local at Pako Festa

Pako Festa has always presented a unique once-a-year opportunity to sample unfamiliar cuisine from foreign lands, or to revisit popular international dishes, in this unique multi-cultural street party celebration that Geelong has enthusiastically embraced since 1983. In pop-up food vans and marquees across the length of Pakington Street, Geelong West, and at West Park, passionate volunteer local community groups will represent the culture and cuisine of their homelands with lovingly prepared home-cooked food.

The local Greek Community will serve up traditional souvlaki and the Indonesian community will offer a variety of dishes ranging from Chicken Satay, Nasi Goreng, Mie Goreng and Beef Rendang to curry puffs and spring rolls. And never fear, the Filipino community will be back this year with their always-popular Inihaw (pork skewers). These skewers have been a highlight of Pako Festa since the very beginning and continue to satisfy the senses today!

Cevapi is a grilled dish, made from either lamb, veal, pork or beef, found traditionally in the countries of south-eastern Europe and Pako Festa is the only event where you can sample a variety of Cevapi from our local Croatian, Macedonian, Bosnian and Serbian communities, each with their own special spice and unique style. If kebabs are more your style, visit the Russian and Iranian food stalls; you can’t miss the sizzle and delicious aromas of chicken, lamb and beef over hot coals floating through the street.

Never fear, Vegetarians, you have not been forgotten! The Polish community stall offers divine Pierogi Dumplings and you can’t go past the delightful Tofu Puffs from the Indonesian Stall. The Nepalese and Indian community food stalls, new to Pako Festa in 2019, will also offer tasty vegetarian options in addition to their non-vegetarian cuisine.

Last but not least, if it’s a sweet tooth you need to satisfy, you can’t go past the magnificent range of desserts our communities will have on offer. The Dutch community will delight you with their traditional donuts, Oliebollen, often shared at New Year celebrations, while the Slovenian stall will tempt you with Apple Strudel and Streusel Cake. The French community will lull you in with their collection of packaged sweets and both the Russian and Croatian communities will have pancakes to share. Our Greek, Serbian, Nepalese and Macedonian food stalls will also have a variety of delectable treats on offer.

The event program map will highlight the locations of all our community food stalls on the day. There will be something for everyone so indulge your senses and enjoy your entree, main, snack and dessert on the day!

And the best news? You don’t have to wait until Pako Festa 2020 to enjoy many of these delights again either. Several of the diverse cultural groups have agreed to share some of their treasured family recipes, passed on from generation to generation, with the wider community through a series of locally produced recipe cards that will be available to collect exclusively on the day of the event.
Patrons can visit the community food stalls and, with any purchase, collect recipes featuring signature dishes from the following community groups including: Croatian, Chinese, Hungarian, Japanese, Dutch, Filipino, French, Greek, Nepalese, Indonesia, Iranian, India, Loa-Thai, Macedonian, Polish, Russian, Serbian, Slovenian, Bosnian, Ukrainian and Wathaurong Co-Op.

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Travel the world on your dinner plate with the delicious series of Pako Festa recipe cards presented by Pako Festa in partnership with Geelong’s multi-cultural communities and supported by EDmag and OnPako Magazine.

The 2019 Pako Festa is delivered by Diversitat and is supported by The Victorian State Government, Victorian Multicultural Commission, Channel 7 and the City of Greater Geelong. In addition, it could not be delivered without the support of the local diverse communities, Pakington Street Traders and many other local and non-local organisations and businesses.

Be sure to save the date Saturday 23 February 2019 and join us at Pako Festa and share in the enriching connections of community and culture. To keep up to date on all the 2019 activities and the full program visit: www.pakofesta.com.au