Onam, the harvest festival celebrated by people of Kerala irrespective of religious beliefs is a food fest. Various vegetables prepared and served on a banana leaf is the highlight of the festival. Back home we used to be entertained by various sideshows on the street during Onam. There was always a Onam fair, street dancers, decked out elephants that strolled along, boat races, new movies that were released on the day, flower carpet competitions and snack making that started a few days ahead of the main celebrations.
In Melbourne, though, the main focus for me is to get the Onam day meal ready with all the "essential" accompaniments. Onam usually falls towards the end of winter in Melbourne when it is hard to get hold of flowers, banana leaves and small bananas. With COVID restrictions and Melbourne in lockdown, we were not allowed to travel over 5 kms from home and it was harder to source all the items.
Every year I serve lunch on a plastic sheet shaped like a banana leaf and the flower carpet is a dismally small circle of flowers that can be grabbed with a fist.
This year I improvised - and decided to have a floral arrangement rather than the traditional flower carpet. I used the lush green parsley that was going into flower from my garden, some lavender and some grevillea. Add to it a bunch of chrysanthemums from the store and my flower carpet looked lush and welcoming - Mahabali would be proud of it, I am sure!
I scouted through all the local fruit and vegetable shops for banana leaves - and the last shop had a last bunch of leaves at $3.00 per leaf. Well, it is once a year and it is going to be grand, I told myself as I bought the leaves - only to find they were frost bitten in parts. But they were not torn and they did not have holes in them. Thank God for small mercies! And I found a bunch of lady finger bananas - better than Cavendish for my purpose - and we were all set!
I made the pickled items a week in advance so it was a mad rush to get the various vegetarian side dishes ready on time.
In my plate ( leaf) from the left hand side, top row:
A pinch of salt
Candied plantain chips
Savoury Plantain chips
Lime pickle
Ginger pickle
Sour Mango pickle
Ginger with Yogurt raita
Chinese Potato (plectranthus rotundifolius) Thoran
Mixed vegetable Avial
Green Jackfruit Avial
Green Beans Stir fry
Snake Beans Stir fry
Winter Melon Pachadi
Red cabbage stir fry
Pappadam
Lady Finger banana
Rice - Palakkadan Matta rice
Yellow Mung Dal with ghee
White vermicelli payasam
Brown mung Dal payasam
Not displayed in the picture - Yogurt curry ( Pulissery)
Tomato Rasam - Tomato soup
Why do I do this, is a question I am asked frequently. Well, the answer is not simple. I need to show my children and the future generations the roots they come from. I believe the stronger their roots, the more they will grow and blossom and stand strong. It also gives me great joy to create the ambience, to relive the memories and recount the stories of how I spent my childhood. The roots need to be deep and strong for the branches to weather storms. And this is what I wish for you all.
Happy Onam - wish you good health and prosperity!
For more information on the legends and stories around Onam, check http://kitchenanugraha.blogspot.com/2020/09/onam-festival.html
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