ONASADYA: A TALE OF GLUTTONY ON ONAM

A very Happy Onam to all. 

Indeed the festival is a feast of colors and flavors. 
The traditional fare for ONAM called ONASADYA is a lavish, vegetarian treat of multiple (more than 20) delicious preparations served on the most humble banana leaf.

Below is a glimpse of the ONASADYA and my friend Sajani Kochunny helped me understand what these delicacies were.

So let's look at some of the items that were my favorite in this treat:
1. Pappadum - No ONASADYA is complete without these crunchy sides. These are generally prepared with rice and urad dal and I could not stop munching these.
2. Puli Inji - This is a yummy tamarind chutney kind of accompaniment. The addition of ginger and green chilies in it add a lot of flavor to it
3. Sarkara Varatti - These are bite-sized fried banana pieces coated with a mixture of jaggery, dry ginger powder and cardamom powder. 
4. Pal Ada Pradhaman - This is one of the variants of payasam. This tasty sweet dish comprises of rice, coconut milk, jaggery and has subtle flavoring of cardamom.
5. Parippu- This is the quintessential dal preparation that is simple yet yummy.
6. Koottukari - This is a yellow colored, slight sweet vegetable & lentil preparation involving coconut milk. The flavor is very delicate and this goes really well with the traditional red rice.
7. Cabbage Thoran - This is not a curry but rather a dry vegetable preparation. The one I had comprised of carrot and grated coconut with cabbage 
8. Avial - This is a mixed vegetables preparation. The curry is thick and laced with coconut milk and curry leaves for that yummy flavor.

The other preparations in this feast included Pal Pradhaman ( White Payasam), buttermilk, fried banana chips,  Kondatam (fried chilies), sambar, rasam, potato stew in coconut milk, Pachadi (a salad like side dish of select vegetables), Kaalan (a yam curry of coconut and yogurt), mango pickle, halwa pieces, red rice and appams.

I thoroughly enjoyed this fare. You too try it out and let me know your experience.

Till then, HAPPY ONAM & HAPPY EATING...