Festival food prep goes into overdrive

If you’re looking for a little food, fun and flavour this weekend, the three-day Westman Multicultural Festival in Brandon is sure to please the palate.

In the lead-up to Day 1 of the festival, which kicks off tonight, volunteers have been prepping both the entertainment and the traditional cuisines of 11 different cultures to which western Manitoba is home.

One of the first ways most people are first introduced to a culture is through its food. And traditional cuisine, which is passed down through generations, provides a kind of living history — and a tasty one at that.

It was nearly three decades ago that Aida’s Catering owner Aida Harrison left her home in Bethlehem in the Occupied Palestinian Territories for the Canadian Prairies, ultimately choosing to settle in Brandon. Many of the Middle Eastern dishes that she grew up with will be showcased at the Palestinian pavilion, which opens Friday at the Backyard on Aberdeen at 5 p.m.

For Harrison, bringing the traditions of her homeland to her Brandon customers is a passion.

“I’m cooking how my mom trained me to cook, you know,” Harrison said. “So it’s all tradition, and I love cooking. I start my business doing cooking and love following my passion. I finished a degree in university, and I decided not to follow that. I want to be doing what I love to do, cooking and hosting people and having fun.”

Harrison and her team were busy on Wednesday afternoon prepping beef shawarma and makloubeh — a kind of rice dish made with cauliflower, chicken and a rich blend of spices that filled her work kitchen on 13th Street.

“This food is how I grew up,” Harrison said. “And like for the makloubeh, this is a nice dish that every Palestinian home knows how to cook. And this is number one on our menu.”

This year, 11 pavilions will take part in the festival — six of which will have their opening night this evening. Others, like the perennial favourite Scotland pavilion, will run for two days, starting Friday night.

Wednesday afternoon was also a busy prep time for Henry Meats, which handles all the food for the Scotland pavilion and has done so ever since the festival first began.

“During the pandemic, we stopped for a bit,” said owner Norman Henry.

Bakers at the business, located just outside Brandon on Highway 270, were busy preparing large pans of sausage rolls and meat pies for the pavilion’s opening night, with bakers Victoria Pichie and Shelly Hillis busy piping meat onto long strips of dough, before pinching and cutting the dough to size.

Henry says it takes several days to get all the food ready for the pavilion, and there’s a lot to try. From steak pies and sausage rolls to bridies — a pastry filled with potatoes, turnips and ground meat — to some trifle, their signature dessert.

Doors open at 6 p.m. at the Scotland pavilion, in the Victoria Inn’s Imperial Ballroom.

For more information on show times and pavilion locations, check out globalpavilions.ca.

» mgoerzen@brandonsun.com