The Katara Cuktural Village Foundation has organized the ASEAN Festival in collaboration with the ASEAN to promote the Southeast Asian Countries. It was held from April 30-May 2. I heard about it the last minute, but we were very lucky to catch it on its last day.

The festival included several activities such as cultural shows, tourism promotion, handicrafts and food stalls. Each country had its own tourism, handicraft and food stall & there was a stage where performers from each country could showcase their cultural talents.


We passed by the tourism stalls, deciding to go back to those after the food stalls.

We tried to have a bit of food from each country but unfortunately, we were so full after four. Here are some of the food the we devoured on...

SINGAPORE - Deep Fried Shrimp QR12

What can really go wrong with shrimp, right?

SINGAPORE - Thosai with Sambar QR8

The thosai was not on my favorites list, and so is the sambar.

PHILIPPINES - Tokneneng QR10

We just had to go for the tokneneng, as Raymond and I were both missing the street food back home. I was bit saddend by the lack of isaw, but the tokneneng were good enough. They also sold chicken barbeque, chicken skin chicharon, lechon manok, chicken adobo and some halo-halo.

THAILAND - Chicken Satai QR10

This is our favorite from all the food that we tried. The peanut sauce was perfect. I kept telling Raymond how much I loved it even when we were on our way home. And he goes "Yes, you've told me ten times in the past 10 minutes."

THAILAND - Tom Yam (Prawn) QR20

I love Tom Yam soup so we had to try this. Unfortunately, it didn't meet my expectations - they are quite high (read about my favorite Tom Yam soup in Doha here.)

INDONESIA - Cendol QR10

The cendol tastes like the Philippines' maja blanca mixed with buko pandan, that you can drink. It was unexpectedly refreshing.

And after all that food, we didn't have enough space in our tummies to get through Malaysia (they were offering roasted chicken with rice and some sort of refreshment very similar to the halo-halo) and Brunei (who were selling nasi goreng). Boohoo! All-in-all, we paid QR70.

So we went ahead to the stage area to watch the performers.



We were lucky enough to catch the performers from the Philippines. They were a group of dancers from Manila called the Kaloob dance Troupe. They did a performance about courtship and marriage, a very romantic piece.

After all that food and show, we headed for the Singapore tourism booth, as we were scheduled to got there in a few couple of months. The Singaporean lady we talked to was very helpful, she gave us a map of Singapore and boxes of Chicken Curry Paste. Now, I have to find time and try to cook that.

So that was our little ASEAN food tour. I wish I could tell you guys to try and go but unfortunately, yesterday was their last day. Let's just hope that they do it again next year, and try to make it last at least 5 days to a week.