Onam celebrations are muted this year. Kerala has gone through one of the worst disasters in perhaps a century because of heavy rains and the devastating floods that followed. Many people from Tamil Nadu and across the country are raising funds for relief and rehabilitation work in any way they can.
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| Chef Regi Mathew |
Many restaurants in Chennai are organising
sadhyas and have pledged to donate part of the proceeds for relief work. One of them is Kappa Chakka Kandhari that opened its doors to the public just a month ago. A week ago, we were invited for a preview of their
Onasadya.
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| Colourful pookalam at the entrance |
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| The sadya |
Up on the 3rd floor at the Gourmet Experience Centre, Chef Regi Mathew took a group of us through the various dishes that make up a
sadya and their placement on the banana leaf. The positioning of the leaf too is important with the narrow end on the diner's left. It starts with a tiny heap of salt, followed by 4 kinds of chips,
pappadam and 4 pickles, including
inji puli, a tongue-tingling sweet and spicy ginger jam. The parade of vegetables starts with
eriserry, avial, beans
mezhupuratti, puliserry, pineapple
pachadi, cabbage
thoren, a particularly delicious
koottu curry and cucumber
kichadi. A ladle of
parippu curry is poured over a helping of fat Kerala rice, a teaspoon of ghee is mixed in. The second course is rice with
sambar, third is with buttermilk curry and last one is with
rasam. A refreshing
sambharan was also served along with a banana. What was it like? In one word - sumptuous!
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| What's on the leaf? |
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| From bottom left: parippu (lentil) curry, mor curry; sambar; rasam |
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| Awesome payasam: banana; jackfruit; rice ada; parippu (lentil) |
There were 4 kinds of
payasams to end the meal with - banana, jackfruit, rice
ada and
parippu. Absolutely yummy!
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| A family affair |
The venue for Kappa Chakka Kandhari's Onasadya is the Railway Officer's Club at Sterling Road. If you prefer to have a takeaway, do remember to book one of their lunch boxes.
Contact numbers have been shared in the poster.
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