With the great Malayali festival Onam upon us, the mouth-watering feast Onasadya is sure to be eagerly anticipated by anyone who has experienced the grand spread.
A sadya is a traditional feast from Kerala that marks the celebration and is a careful mixture of foods that optimises taste and the health benefits of the dishes.
Ayurveda classifies foods into genres — hot and cold — and designates a time in the day for every kind of food to be eaten.
In traditional households where they adhere to ayurvedic norms, sadyas do not feature non-vegetarian items, as mixing dairy and meat produces harmful toxins in the gut that can result in various ailments, ranging from skin conditions to malfunctioning of organs and nervous system in the long term.
Food is served on green plantain leaf, which when scarred by your nails as you scoop up the dish helps add fresh chlorophyll to your diet, which is highly beneficial for health.
The basic sadya is supposed to stand true as a feast and have every form of food produced in the state — fruits, vegetables, roots/yams, gourds, grains, seeds and dairy. Sadya will have a mixture of fresh and cooked ingredients of every texture — solid, liquid, semi liquid — covering a spectrum of taste — salt, sweet, sour, bitter and spicy. Sadya is served with warm cumin water, which helps digestion.
The big Onam lesson I have learned is that no matter how busy life is, a little planning can do wonders. We lead a work-centric life in the UAE, and many of us are pressed for time after office hours to cook even a simple dinner, so to dare to prepare an Onasadya spread can seem a challenge. But the good news is that it is not impossible, or expensive.
If you are open to microwave cooking and not too fussy about the traditional procedures that vary across the 14 districts of Kerala, a good Onasadya can be prepared, even after work.
Must-haves
Fresh coconut and coconut oil, mustard seeds and curry leaves are must-haves in most Kerala recipe, and plantain leaves are to be used as plates. Start from left to right on the top half of a horizontally laid plantain leaf with the narrow end to your left and serve the dishes in order.
A typical Onasadya comprises the following items from left to right: 1) injicurry/ginger relish; 2) narangacurry/white lemon pickle; 3) mangacurry/red hot mango pickle; 4) pachadi/cucumber raita; 5) red beetroot kichadi or white sweet pineapple raita; 6) mezhukkuvaratti/banana-corm-runner beans fry; 7) aviyal/mixed vegetables, made by cooking slender long pieces of corm, banana, drumstick, brinjal, cluster beans, cucumber and ash gourd cooked in a rough gravy of coconut ground with cumin, turmeric, tamarind and garnished with raw coconut oil as well as crushed curry leaves.
Then there is 8) olan/stewed red beans and ash gourd in coconut milk and 9) kalan/thick curd and half-ripe banana stew on the upper half of the plantain leaf. The lower half of the leaf is to be spread with the following dishes, again staring from left to right; 10) upperi/banana wafers; 11) chakkaravaratti/fried banana chunks tossed in jaggery; 12) pappadums, 13) poovan banana fruit. These items are to be confined to the one third of the lower half of the leaf.
The 14) rice, is to be mixed and eaten in courses with 15) paruppu/boiled lentils with a spoon of warm ghee; 16) sambar (the popular fiery dish); 17) pulissery/buttermilk soup; 18) rasam/lentil soup; 19) mor/seasoned buttermilk and finally — 20) adaprathaman/brown kheer made of flat bits of rice dough cooked and mixed with jaggery and coconut milk, flavoured with cardamom powder and garnished with fried cashew nuts, kismis and copra/dried coconut bits.
Of the above dishes, I’d advise you to buy and prepare in advance items one to three and 10 to 13, which will keep well. On the previous day prepare items 9, 17 to 19. And finally on the onam day cook items four to eight, 14 to 16, and 20.
Happy Onam!
Ready meals
Restaurant options near you
If you prefer to go out to a restaurant for Onasadya, or order in, then there are hotels in the UAE that will cater to your needs.
Coconut Grove at Rydges Plaza in Satwa has an organised format of sadya, starting today
until August 25. On Thiruvonam day, tomorrow, the sadya will be served in three batches from 12pm-1pm, 1pm-2pm and 3pm-4pm. Meals are charged at Dh55 per plate. Thiruvonam day sadyas have to be pre-booked by calling 04 398 3800.
Salkara Restaurant will also be serving the Onam luncheon at its Ansar Mall outlet in Al Nahda, Sharjah, from 11.30am. Its outlet at the LuLu Foodcourt in Al Ghusais will be delivering parcel meals for lunch, or diners can walk in any time after 5pm. Pre-booking is a must if you plan to go in a large group. Call 04 298 8858 to make a reservation.
Calicut Paragon in Karama will not be serving Onam meals as the festival falls during the fasting month of Ramadan. However if you are willing to swap a sadya for a North Kerala variety of tasty biryani, this is a place you can visit any day. During Ramadan just drop in any time after 6pm to enjoy a sumptuous biryani. You can also order takeaway from 11.30am onwards. Call 04 335 8700.
Other popular restaurants in the UAE that serve Keralite food include Keerthi Restaurant and Kerala Kitchen in Karama, and Tharavadu Restaurant at the Princess Hotel, Al Ghusais; Triveni in Sharjah; Thattukada at Palm Beach Rotana in Bur Dubai and Nalukettu in Grand Hotel, Al Ghusais.
