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Seychelles-China Day celebrations - Public enjoys Chinese food and goods at special bazaar |23 January 2017

The Chinese community as well as members of the public were able to enjoy Chinese food, goods and commodities being sold in a special Chinese Bazaar yesterday in the ICCS car park.

The Minister for Youth, Sports and Culture Idith Alexander, the Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to Seychelles Yu Jinsong, chief executive of the Creative Industries and National Events Agency (Cinea) Galen Bresson and chairman of the Seychelles Chinese Association Charlie Ng Ping Cheung joined together in a ribbon cutting ceremony to officially open the bazaar.

This took place in the presence of principal secretaries, members of National Assembly (MNAs), officials of the government and of the Chinese embassy.

A lion dance was performed by a group of local youths followed by a demonstration of Marshall Arts and performances by the Confucius Institute Chamber Choir.

The various stalls were set up by the local Chinese businesses such as shops, take- aways and restaurants.

As it is the Year of the Rooster according to the Chinese calendar, a variety of goods in line with the Rooster were being sold such as lucky charms and posters. There were also lanterns, Chinese handheld fans, balloons and other goods made in China at a lower and reasonable price.

There was also Chinese food available such as chicken chow mein, fried rice with Chinese sausage, crispy pork, barbecued pork char sieu, sweet and sour pork as well as a variety of Chinese dumplings which are either fried, steamed or boiled with pork, beef or chicken stuffing.

A new product was also being sold R15 apiece under the Chilli Bar stall called the Sea Coconut cake which is a small delicious pastry stuffed with fresh puree of either pineapple, strawberry, green beans, peas, nougat or sweetened lotus.

Director of the Chilli Bar stall, Molly Roselie, said the cakes are being produced to mainly target Chinese tourists who visit Seychelles as a souvenir to take home with them.

“This coco de mer shaped product is called Sea Coconut cake as it is translated for the Chinese to better understand what it is. There is a packaging kit which will also be incorporated with these new products as we are hoping to sell it to shops to make it more accessible to tourists and locals alike. They can also be purchased upon order on at the Chilli Bar restaurant at La Louise,” she said.

Mr Bresson said this is the first event organised by Cinea and there is more to come out of a fully packed calendar for this year.

Mr Ng Ping Cheung said the turnout is better this year than in 2016.

“Although there were a few showers early during the day I don’t expect it to be a problem as more people will come gradually as the day goes by. The association is very satisfied with the outcome as there are more stalls than anticipated,” he said.

Marie Lise Hissen-Lee, who took the opportunity to come see for herself what the Chinese community had to offer, was not left disappointed by the bazaar.

“I find the Seychelles-China Day very interesting and of great importance to Seychelles as the Chinese community is not that big therefore the Seychellois have to join together to provide support and it shows you the great friendship which exists between our two nations,” she said.

However others were left disappointed by the bazaar as it did not meet their expectations.

Lisianne Antat said she thought it was going to be on a bigger scale than that and there would be a larger variety to choose from.

“The bazaar did not meet my expectation at all compared to how it sounded in the advertisement. However I am enjoying the dumplings, they are very good,” she said.

An expatriate working in Seychelles said: “This is very small and it lacks a variety of goods and food as I am from a big city in France and this is not impressive. Only an hour into the bazaar a stall is already out of stock,” she lamented.

Later in the afternoon, the Xinjiang Troupe performed a free cultural show at the International Conference Centre of Seychelles (ICCS).

The accompanying photos show some highlights of the Chinese bazaar yesterday.

 

 

 

 

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