The Onam Sadhya at Home :: 2023

Rustled up N and P for a lunch of the Onam Sadhya at home. A meal like this must be eaten together with friends! It's too comfortable to order the food from Spice Junction as a takeout and eat at home. They do the food delicious and pack them well. We picked up the food boxes at 10.45am, got home, warmed up the food in the oven, and the friends came over at 11.30am for a nice long brunch. 

The Onam Sadhya is one of the most flavorful vegetarian meals. There would be a few pickles and sides of sambar and rasam. I'll take the mango pickle, but not the rest. I cannot with the sour-bitter mix. I can't deal with pulisseri or kalan because the buttermilk is too cloying, so I always skip that. I always loved a well-balanced olan and this year's didn't disappoint either. The avial, kootu curry, erisseri (pumpkin curry), pachadi and kichadi all went so well together in one gorgeous mesh on the banana leaf. We ate with our hands of course — the best way to get them flavors. 

We all ate too much of the Kerala red rice. Even then, there was so much rice leftover that it was sufficient to feed four for another meal. We had plenty of rice in the freeze. So our guests packed all the rice home. The Kerala red rice freezes well and we all love frozen rice to quickly reheat for those days we're short on time. 

For dessert, there were two types of payasam- ada and pal. Not for me, obviously. Even the dessert-eaters took only two spoonfuls of each payasam and called it a day. I actually didn't want to have the friends over because I was dealing with a few ceiling stains, odd leaks, never-ending cat poop in the AC compressor area, a dead Fermax internal intercom, flickering lights and busted toilet lights. Arrrrrghhhh. Whatever. I had ground some coffee beans from Black Sugar — Colombia, Granja Paraiso 92 Geisha. Used the French press and made a big cup of much needed after-meal coffee for everyone. Brewed it thick. Mmmmmm.