– Aishwarya Jayan Menon
“Life becomes a festival when gaiety and culture blend. Onam delivers the message of both.” – Anonymous
When the calendar dates to the festival of Onam, every Malayali’s heart jumps with joy. With our heart’s throbbing with excitement, we can’t wait to spread the joy around, to fellow Malayalis and non- Malayalis!
It is celebrated to commemorate the mythical King Mahabali, celebrate the end of the monsoon season, and welcome the harvest. This is a great festival to experience in India as it is full of happiness, excitement, and enjoyment by people of all ages. While the day calls for houses smelling of fresh pookalam and ironed white sarees with pleasant laughter, the onam sadya (feast) is laid out to the tune of our classic beat songs. The hustle of stoves lighting and pans clattering don’t stop, until the banyan leaf is filled with vibrant colours of scrumptious and authentic Kerala dishes, usually ranging between 8-16 varieties!
While kitchens are busy with day-to-day hustles, we checked in with a couple of amazing Chefs to get an idea of how Onam Sadya is still being served to its best authenticity. Known for its Food festivals which organizes Thattukada – Kerala Street Food Festival, Onam Sadya (Onam Feast), Vishu Sadya (Vishu Feast), Seafood Festival, etc through the year, we have Anup Singh, one of the three partners of ‘The white Canvas Hospitality LLP’ who manages the amazing restaurant brand of ‘Salt Mango tree’ in Bangalore.
Launched in June 2014, SMT is a Casual Dining specialty cuisine (Kerala Cuisine) restaurant with two outlets in Bangalore, India. Known for its authentic recipes such as Thalassery Biryani and traditional dishes such as Appam (Pancake made with fermented rice batter and coconut milk) and Stew, Ghee roasts, Fish Frys, Kerala Parotta, inhouse Mocktails etc. Recent award being Times Food Awards 2020, 2021, 2022 for Best Kerala restaurant. Previously it’s been recommended by GQ magazine as a must-visit pin-up place in Bangalore; Awarded one of the best restaurants in Bangalore by The Week magazine.
Mr. Anup says that regarding onam sadya, ‘For Salt Mango Tree authenticity lies in recipes that we have been consistent with for the past 8 years; passed on from highly trained temple chefs and secondly the use of fresh ingredients. Nothing can beat fresh ingredients however good a recipe it is. We use our own dried spices ground as per Salt Mango Tree recipes’
Taking the original authenticity out of its natural state and sustaining it in another place takes true passion and diligence indeed.
Meanwhile, while we dwelled deeper into the unique dishes brought into the sadya cuisine, we have Chef Shashikanth from “Erra karam” , which gives thetrue experience of south Indian cuisine like never before a one a kind experience with spicy and authentic food from four different south Indian states with fully operational bar serving Indian & international mock tails, cocktails, fusion liquors and premium liquors, based in Hyderabad, who said that, their unique dish is the “mewa panjri payasam” This we make by using pure cow ghee first we roast brown vermicelli by adding dry nuts then we add milk and jaggery at last we also add mewa panjri on top a mix of five different types of fry dry nuts . Pure bliss, indeed.
He further talks about the best practises to keep up the authenticity of the culture while cooking; is to visit market and check fresh produce as per season.
And a tentative menu should be ready in advance so dishes on menu can be replace if a particular item is not produced or not available in market for any given reason. This preserves the freshness of the dishes.
To elaborate more on this, We have Mr. Suresh, from ‘Cheta’s Kitchen’, based in Bangalore, which is a family run restaurant business, serving authentic Palakkad style homely onam sadya, for the past 8 years. On getting closer insights, Mr. Suresh talks about the challenges they face, while they restlessly work on onam for ensuring they serve the absolute best for their customers. “One of the challenges we face is regarding the inventory. We cannot afford to waste anything; hence our calculations must be accurate. There is no leeway for mistakes. We must think and prepare. Secondly, we need to ensure our consistency with our dishes…80-90% of our customers are the ones who always come back to re-ordering with us. We have and will always ensure we keep our standard up. Lastly, our challenge is that we have a single hand chef- my wife, who single headedly prepares 23 items by herself…we don’t have an external workforce. Even our packaging, is done by our grown-up kids, who have a knack for it. So, all the work is a lot, yet we make sure we do it with passion and pride, with gratitude”
Their main goal is to provide onam sadya which has a constant touch of homeliness and comfort, packed in boxes, carefully, sent with love.
While the work is laborious and effort taking, all our chefs agreed on one thing – “If you don’t have the passion to do it, don’t be in the field” The work may be tedious, but to uphold the pure authenticity in another state, is quite a task. A task that these chefs have done, beautifully. With that, we wish you all a very big, ONAMAASHAMSAGAL!
ONAM WISHES FROM
