Festivals That Cater to a Food Lover

With Christmas last year, we have come to the end of a delectable line of festivals that come in the latter part of the year. I associate festivals with food, the making and serving of it and the indulging of the various delicacies that is synonymous with these celebrations. It’s easy to live this dream in a multi cultural, multi ethnic country like ours. There are so many festivals to celebrate; so many excuses to eat...unapologetic-ally if you please.  

For Eid ul Fitr or for Ramzan, I get asked if I would invite people over for mutton biriyani; I remember asking my Hindu friends for kozhukattais during Vinayaka Chatturthi and sweet pongal for Pongal; I have forgotten the number of times I have asked my mother to make her trade mark paruppu payasam for Onam. You see, it had to be prepared during the said festivals, even in a non-participating household or else it never really got made.  

A small Onasadhya, with my favourite dal payasam

I credit my dad for this impartial adoption of various festivals in our household, thereby instilling in me a sense of tolerance to all religions and cultures. He never shied away from buying crackers for Diwali for us or from asking mum to prepare a simple Onam spread. And since we had spent a joyous part of our childhood in a flat which housed Marathis, Sindhis, Brahmins, Muslims, Malayalees, a mouth watering array of cultural and religious fare passed into our home, sometimes into mummy’s recipe book. And in addition to getting exposed to S’s Andhra customs and food, I listened in fascination the chatter of the many ardent, yet circumspect forty something homemakers who made time from the bustling household chores to squeeze in an hour of yoga. Here too the class was an eclectic mix of Gujaratis, Sindhis, Tamilians – all Hindus and an odd Muslim or Christian too. If I thought an average Indian would celebrate Ganesh Chathurthi, Diwali, Ayudha Pooja, Krishna Jayanthi, Eid, Christmas etc with fervour then what these women were talking about – Holi, Karva Chauth, Mahavir Jayanthi, Bhai Dheej etc., seemed to be equally important. And with talk of festivals, there was always a quick discussion on what was cooking in their kitchens. If only calories could be burned by mere thought of mouth watering food.

This past, I noticed that we had been on a culinary run since September. It started off with Ganesh Chathurti, then Bakrid or Eid ul Adha, Onam, Navaratri, Diwali ending with the very festive Christmas; maybe more, but these festivals falling between months August and December are more celebratory and integrate food.

All that a thali can hold - South Indian menu sample

 I fervently awaited Ganesh Chaturthi, as it presented a chance to savour the smooth, almost translucent, sometimes even white, super soft sweet kozhukattai or rice dumplings. Not only did I enjoy making some at home, but I also got to taste a few from other households. Each homemaker has his/her recipe that they swear by and though there can’t be much going wrong with a steamed dumpling having a coconut, jaggery filling, I assure you there is quite a trick to get them soft and light. In addition to the sweet variety there is of course the kara kozhukattai, pidi kozhukattai, tangy tamarind rice, fresh chickpea sundal and a vada-payasam to feast on. After this quintessential vegetarian fare, came the opportunity to cook non-vegetarian meal for Bakrid.

Mutton biriyani and meat cutlets - Bakrid

Bakrid or Id-ul-Adha has its own foodravaganza and like other households, ours too had that quintessential biriyani that made its way to our hungry, drooling mouths. Mum combined it with a preparation of meat cutlets, semiya payasam, raita, mint chutney and pappads. This was definitely made for lunch on Bakrid and Ramzan. Our feasting started from breakfast itself, which is laid after the men returned from the special prayers in the mosque. I had to deliver sweets to neighbours’ houses before I could sit down to relish the king’s breakfast spread – idiyappams or appams with special coconut based egg curry, mummy’s caramel cake, murukkus or thattai’s that she had prepared for the occasion. The menu was an amalgamation of mummy's food experiences of all the places she stayed at  - Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. I don’t know how we found the place in our stomachs to gorge on the equally expansive lunch spread afterwards.

I look forward to the pomp and splendour of Deepavali as much as I look forward to the sweets and savouries that get made and shared. The array of sweetmeat is delicious – polis, groundnut/puffed rice chikkis or laddoos, rava laddoos (my absolute favourites), besan laddoos, kaju katli, thayir murukku (an Andhra speciality), adhirasams (my ultimate favourite!), and a variety of other murukkus and laddoos. It’s mindboggling really. An average household starts preparations a week in advance so that the snacks and sweets are ready for the big day. The busy homemaker has to have her wits about herself if she has to make a solid idli, vada, sambhar breakfast and follow it up with an elai sapadu. I don’t envy the poor lady even one bit.

When it is December and Christmas dawns, it is like the time for everyone to celebrate. Somehow, because of its proximity to the New Year, the world at large feels like celebrating Christmas. The wine and the plum cakes start coming in a few days before Christmas, and if you have a gracious Christian friend, like I do, who throws a mean Christmas lunch, then there’s nothing more to ask in the festive season. There are of course insane number of advertisements showcasing Christmas lunch, read turkey based lunch menu; it takes iron will not to follow your imagination to the nearest hotel or restaurant that serves the delectable fare. Roast turkey with dark sauce is the highlight of the festival for me. The juicy, succulent turkey replete with the sticky, sour sauce completes my food cravings of the year on a high note. Along with the redolent with spices plum cake, which S is such a big fan of, a serving of any good English pastry or dessert marks the festival for me. I have a mean sweet tooth which I am trying hard to keep in check, but come Christmas and it becomes difficult to turn a blind eye to the array of rolls, éclairs, cupcakes and like. And even though these are available throughout the year, there is something rather quaint about sinking one’s tooth into these delicacies when there is a nip in the air.

Though writing this blog has helped channel that nostalgia to some extent, I am fervently wishing away the dry months of February and March to roll slowly into the next welcoming cycle of festivals that bring to forte along with divinity and religious fervour - sweets and savouries and simple and rich fare for the believers...of good food.