It’s that time of the year again, closer that I thought; Thiruvonam is on 21 August, Saturday.

All are in a festive spirit with the schools closed on Friday, a holiday on account of Muharram and Sunday is Raksha Bandhan.

The Onam sadya (feast) has more than 20 items (vegetarian) served on a banana leaf and preparing a full fledged sadya is not a task to be undertaken by one person. Cooking the sadya is usually a combined effort by all members of the family or families celebrating together. If the kitchen is small, a potluck arrangement works well too. Celebrating together is always fun !

Everyone has fond memories of the Onam sadya and mine is what you call stratified sampling 😇 and that was how we prepared the meal for the feast. At my parent’s house, we were not fond of all the traditional veg dishes, so we pick and choose what we like most among the must have dishes. And it was never a fully veg Onam at home, we always had a side dish of fish; it is a fond memory and that’s how I want to keep it.

It is a holiday and cooking is always not my idea of celebration. So looking back, there were years when we went out with relatives to a restaurant on Onam 👉 On this Onam Occasion…🌸🌼

Last year we had an online Pookkalam competition and this time, the focus is on the food.

So what are the plans for Onam 2021 ? Cooking or eat out? Will cook at home this time is my thinking. And with that decided, next is to select the dishes and then call my mom and ask her to WhatsApp the recipes.

There is a lot of prep work that needs to be done, grating coconut is one arduous task. You need grated coconut for the dishes and extract the coconut milk for the payasam. You need to buy all the vegetables, not to forget the jaggery for the payasam and maybe banana leaf too or maybe just plates will do, let’s see. Some dishes can be made beforehand. So here’s to a cooking mele for Onam 🏵 and wishing everyone HAPPY ONAM !!

Till next post, take care !!