Its the day of the Onam festival today and for foodies, a day to have the Sadya meal… At my home, for the past few years, we have been buying the Sadya meals from various providers… While searching for an option this time, I found that the Hotel Karthika Park was open for orders and so having enjoyed their food before well, we decided to go ahead and place the order for their Onam Sadya…
While placing the order, as before I tried asking for two portions with one extra third portion without rice… This is because, typically both me and my parents eat less rice and more curries… However, the manager there informed me that the quantity of curries would be enough for all three of us as they do give higher quantities that everyone else as their standard… So, I placed the order for two portions, ie, the Couple option as they call it and also asked for an extra banana leaf… The Parcel arrived quite early, as shown in the pic above and the pic below shows the contents of those carry bags…
According to the menu they showed me when placing the order, this Onam Sadya consists of 25 items, namely, the Upperi, Sharkaravaratty, Mulaku Kondattam, Pappadam, Pazham, Inji Achar, Naranga Achar, Manga Achar, Vellarikka Kichadi, Beetroot Pachadi, Sweet Pachadi, Cabbage Thoran, Aviyal, Vada Kootu Curry, Olan, Parippu, Ghee, Sambar, Pulissery, Rasam, Pachamoru, Ada Pradhaman, Kadala Payasam, Semiya Payasam, Boli and Boiled Rice…
However, from what arrived, instead of the Vada Kootu Curry, it was the Potato based Kootu Curry and the Ghee was missing as well… But its okay… The following pics show the various items served on the banana leaf for me to eat… However, the one problem I noticed immediately as I opened all the packs is that unlike what they told me earlier, the quantities of many of the side dishes felt too less even for two let alone three… Hope you can understand which all, based on the quantities served (sharing among three here you see)… Again, its okay as this is a matter of personal perspective and I have heard about food cultures within Kerala especially in Travancore regions where people eat only a drop or so of side dish per mouthful of rice… I guess for such people, the given quantities may be enough… Its just that if I had known that this is going to be case, I would’ve ordered for the family option instead of the couple one…
Now lets talk about each of the items… First of all, Rice was cooked perfectly and there was more than enough rice for all three of us… Both the Parippu and Sambar were incredibly rich with thick consistency… Parippu was of course the green gram and coconut based one typically seen in Trivandrum… Sambar was incredibly flavourful and seemed to have been made with roasted coconut blended into it and had that slight sweetness to it while being rich and a bit intense when it comes to the flavour of the asafoetida… The vegetables in it felt cooked well… What I felt missing was the flavour of ghee with the Parippu… Anyways, moving on, I don’t think anything needs to be said about the given Banana, the Pappadam, the Mulaku Kondattam and the Upperi as they were like any we typically get everywhere… The Sharkaravaratty on the other hand deserves a mention as it had that fresh homemade feel and had that perfect crunch to it as opposed to being hard like how we get from most places… As for the pickles, I liked the Inji Pickle the best as it had that nice sweet and spicy taste with strong flavour of Ginger as expected… As for the Manga Pickle, it felt to be on the spicy and sour side for me and as for the Naranga Pickle, I am afraid I have had better versions before…
Now coming to the Pachadis, I felt that the Vellarikka Kichadi was a bit too sour for my taste and the sweet Pachadi made with Pineapple felt a bit too sweet too… However, the Beetroot Pachadi was fine and was, as expected, how it is seen typically with the nice flavour of Beetroot in it… The Kootu Curry was of loose consistency but the potatoes and other vegetables in it ie, onions and tomatoes were cooked well and I felt the flavour of the Garam Masala used was fine… The Olan was ok with the flavour of the Brown Cow Eyed Peas (Manpayar / Vanpayar) taking the lead but seemed to have some raw pumpkin as well and I do wish the flavour of the Pumpkin and Carrots came thru better in this… The Thoran felt weird for me as I have never seen one like this one… Essentially looked like a powder with some green gram in it… The menu said that its Cabbage thoran, but I couldn’t feel the taste of cabbage in this at all… Coming to the Aviyal, this version appears to have been made using Cashew Paste along with Coconut… I liked the taste of this one and the vegetables used felt cooked well… As for the Rasam, I liked the flavours but wish it was a lot less sour… Pachamoru on the other hand felt nice and perfect with just the right amount of sourness and having just the right amount of crunchiness in the ingredients (shallots, ginger, green chillies and curry leaves) used… Last but not least, coming to the Boli and the Payasams, I liked the Boli very much… It was just perfect with the incredible fragrance of ghee… Safe to say that it was my favourite item today… As for the Payasams, I felt that both the Ada Pradhaman and Kadala Payasam were nice with just the right amount of sweetness and flavour of the Jaggery and Ghee used along with roasted coconut… Both the Ada and Kadala were cooked perfectly in these… However, I felt the Semiya Payasam could’ve been a lot better as from the taste, it seemed rushed, which never works when making Payasams…
Thats it… A bit of mixed feelings on this one which I guess is probably because based on previous experiences with the food from Karthika Park, I had high expectations… Of-course, I don’t in any way mean that this was a bad Sadya… Its actually a fine Sadya meal but when compared to the level at which food has been from the place based on my previous experiences, it seemed to fall short overall… Thats all… I am not sure if this is the first time they have done the Sadya delivery for Onam but irrespective of that, I for one am hoping that things will be better next time… Best wishes to the team…
