ELAI SHAAPADU AND TOO MANY BEEDAS

The advantage of attending Tamil functions is that you get to eat traditional ellai shapaddu (a festive meal served on a banana leaf) with so many items that you can never do justice. But yet that seating, with the banana leaf in front of you and watching it slowly fill is a fulfilling experience. By and large most items are good, but sometimes a special item will be served adding to the excitement. Like they served us the most delicious vaayapoo vadai (fritters made of the banana flower) and they gave us several helpings.
The standard menu remains the same, with 3 vegetables, one koshumali, one fry item, sambar, rasam, payasam and depending on the occasion 2 or 3 sweets. And of course there are the huge applams and a water bottle which you cannot open.
Sometimes there is mor khozhambu (buttermilk enhanced with coconut masala) and there is always one lime pickle and sometimes a ginger and tamarind pickle too.
The whole serving on the leaf can overwhelm you. This time at Coimbatore there was a colocossia (yam) fry. These slippery blighters are first boiled and then chopped in roundels and then fried. At a wedding or a large function, you can do it with lots of oil. But at home one would use less oil and roast the hell out of them with constant stirring. The ones we were served were just so and tasted wonderful. So did the rest of the meal.
The kalyaanam rasam needs a mention. A different flavour and taste, it is always delicious and these days all ask for a separate glass to drink the rasam. Adding it to rice and eating the same needs a certain skill and ability to enjoy with the proper sounds and smacking of lips.
At Coimbatore they also served us peppered milk and then a beeda. When someone pops a beeda in the mouth and turns to talk to you, the flavour engulfs you.
I have so many cavities, I am surprised I can eat some food and a beeda means a lot of brushing of teeth, post the chewing of this digestive. If not made well, you can lose taste for a couple of days.
After this super time at Coimbatore, I attended a poonal (thread ceremony) of my nephew Rithwik at Chennai. A good looking boy and very tall for his age, he remained a tad uncommunicative with us. I thought it could be because he was bare chested all the time. But he received all the attention, while his mother, my cousin Mithra and father Kishore looked good but uncomfortable in the nine yards and dhoti respectively.
And since it was a working day, there were all these women, dressed beautifully and they attended the function efficiently, their pallu all pinned up and the flowers intact. They came, blessed the boy, had their lunch, left for office. Meanwhile we had both breakfast and lunch within five hours. Did not do justice but both the meals were delicious.
I returned to Hyderabad with a lot of murukkus, laddus and various gifts and of course beautiful memories.