Ranchi, Sept. 22: This Puja, the pandal-hoppers would savour traditional Bengali dishes, which are getting lost in the age of fast food.

To treat the traditional food lovers, the hotels here have planned to launch a 12-day food festival titled “Maha Bhoj”.

It is scheduled to start from October 1 at Hotel Capitol Residency here.

The hosts have selected a five-member team led by chef Asit Kundu to prepare the dishes.

Kundu has decided to prepare dishes of banana flowers and skin of banana leaves, pineapple dal, raw papaya raisins dalna, chingri cutlet, sukto —a dish prepared out of white trunk of banana, which the Bengali grandmothers takes pride in cooking and serving.

“The objective of the fest is to introduce younger generation to the taste of the traditional dishes,” pointed out the chef.

“We have also decided to serve green peas doka liked by poet Rabindranath Tagore. This dish is said to be innovation of the Tagore family,” said Kundu.

The other popular Bengali dishes to be served include alu-potoler dalna, maacher sorso jhol (fish in mustard gravy), ghee bhat (sweetish Bengali rice pulao), porota (flatbread), lankar achar (green chillies’ pickle) and patishapta (sweet flour crepe with sweet aromatic coconut filling and topped with saffron cream).