Its Onam time again and that means its time for Sadya… As can be seen from my previous posts on Sadyas, my parents and I usually have been ordering home deliveries for the past few years for the occasion… However, this time we went out to have the Onam Sadya… This is because this time I couldn’t find any provider who does take up deliveries… At best, I could find a couple of them who said that though they don’t do deliveries, they might put up the leftover parcels in the popular delivery apps… But this also means, no guarantee of availability as well… So, finally we decided that it makes more sense to just go to a restaurant and eat rather than going to collect take away…
So, the place where we went, as quite evident from the post title was Hotel Uday Suites nearby the Shanghumugham beach in Trivandrum… Dad called them ahead and reserved a table for the three of us and we went there on time… As expected they had a table for three reserved for us and so the staff immediately escorted us to the table and started serving… So, the following pics show the Onam Sadya that we got… The Sadya was indeed the Trivandrum style sadya which is served as a series of courses on a banana leaf…
So, what you see in the pic above is the first course consisting of Rice with Parippu Curry and Ghee along with all the side dishes or thoducurrikal as we call them… This set of side dishes like most sadyas, consists of the following… Four pickles namely the Inji Curry, Naranga Curry, Maanga Curry and here we also got a Nellikka Curry as well… This was followed by a Vellarikka Pachadi and two kichadis namely the Beetroot Kichadi and the Pineapple Kichadi followed by a Thoran, Aviyal, Kootu Curry, Kurukkukaalan and Theeyal… In addition to all this, they also served a Pappadam, Upperi, Sharkaravaratty, Mulakukondattam and salt, along with a Banana as well…
As per the custom, all the mentioned side dishes were served first before serving the course consisting of Rice along with Parippu and Ghee… The Parippu Curry was of the kind we usually see in Travancore areas, made with Green Gram and coconut… The flavours were just right and worked so well with the Ghee, though I felt it could use a little bit of salt to me… After Parippu, the Sambar was served and I felt that it was quite flavourful with the flavour of Asafoetida in it taking the lead along with the Vegetables and Chilly Powder… Both the Parippu Curry and Sambar seemed to work well with the rice and the side dishes…
As per the custom of the Trivandrum style Sadya, it is the sweets that come next which consisted of three Payasams and Boli as can be seen in the pics below… So, the first payasam to arrive was the Ada Pradhaman made using Rice Ada which is a form of Flat Noodles made of Rice and then made using Coconut Milk and Jaggery… The amount of sweetness was just right for me… This was followed by the Parippu Payasam made using split green gram and was again based on Jaggery and Coconut Milk… But compared to the Ada Pradhaman, this one had more Jaggery usage and hence felt a bit more intense in terms of flavours… Both the payasams had the flavour of Cardamom as well… The third payasam was the Paal Payasam made using Rice and is sugar based instead of Jaggery and Cow’s Milk instead of Coconut Milk… This Payasam is typically served with Boli, a sweet flatbread made with lentils… The Paal Payasam felt a bit bland to me and the Boli tasted nice, though the outer edge was hard and dry…
Unlike most meals, in the Trivandrum Sadya, the sweets are not the end but there is more… What followed the Payasams is a course of Rice along with Pulissery, a sweet, sour and savoury Yogurt based curry made using Pineapple and Coconut… I usually don’t like Pulissery much but I did end up liking this version as the flavours were all perfectly balanced and with the right amount of sourness from the yogurt… There was a nice fragrance of Mustard and Coconut Oil and it was seasoned perfectly… Pulissery was followed by Rasam and Pachamoru, both of which we asked to be served in cups rather than on the rice because of how watery they usually are… I didn’t mix them with rice and just drank them on their own… The Rasam had a medium level spiciness and had a nice flavour of Tomatoes with Coriander Leaves and Mustard… The Pachamoru felt like the typical drink we call as Sambharam having the nice balanced flavour combination consisting of Green Chillies, Ginger and Curry Leaves along with Butter Milk… Both were seasoned perfectly to me…
Coming to the taste of the side dishes, I must say that the Inji Curry was simply the best that I ever had so far… I felt that it had a perfectly balanced flavour combination of Ginger, Tamarind, Jaggery and Fenugreek… What I felt interesting is that the Nellikka Curry tasted like the same recipe for the Inji Curry was used, except for lesser amount of Ginger and instead having the Gooseberry… The Naranga Curry and Maanga Curry were like any other but with controlled level of spiciness, with the Maanga Curry being the most spicy one… The Vellarikka Pachadi, Beetroot Kichadi and the Pineapple Kichadi was also nice and tasting fresh… The Kurukkukaalan was quite interesting cause its rare to see it being served in Sadyas especially in Trivandrum… It is typically made as a paste made up of Plantains, Yam, Coconut and Yogurt and seasoned with Turmeric and Chilly Powder… The one we got was incredibly creamy and had a nice taste of, if I’m not mistaken, Yam and Yogurt taking the lead along with Plantain and Coconut oil… Thoran was mostly made of Cabbage, but had Carrots and Green Peas as well in it… Aviyal was just like any other, but the dry kind that we typically see here in the south… The Kootu Curry made with Potatoes and the Theeyal made with Okra or Vendakka are unique to the Trivandrum style Sadya and both of them tend to be full of spices… The taste of Garam Masala is what dominated the Kootu Curry which had both Potatoes and Lentils… Theeyal is a dish thats original to Trivandrum and its the combined taste of quite strong levels of Tamarind, Fenugreek and Coconut thats unique to it… I felt that this Theeyal was very well made and I enjoyed the taste, especially when had with the Parippu Curry and Rice…
Last but not least, of-course nothing special needs to be said about the Pappadam, Upperi, Sharkaravaratty, Mulakukondattam and Banana as they were all like any other… Overall, I did enjoy this Sadya even though I have had better tasting ones before… There is one thing that I noticed which surprised me though… Usually in any restaurant in Trivandrum that serve Kerala Meals, let alone the Sadya, what can be observed is that they usually tend to serve a lot of Rice while minimising the quantity of the side dishes served… Its typical as the eating culture of this area is that people eat more rice than curries and the serving habit of restaurants reflect the same… However, for the first time in my life, I found the servers, trying to minimise the quantity of rice being served… In-fact, they were even hesitating to serve when asked… I am not sure why that was the case here… All I can do is guess that maybe they had a shortage because of more non-booked customers showing up than what they anticipated… That experience was a first for me and considering the pricing, was indeed quite a surprise… ?
That’s it for now… Another Onam has passed… I guess going forward, we might be having Sadya by going out like this, especially if deliveries are not available… Lets see how it will be next time…
