My inlaws attended a relative's wedding yesterday. Prasad, Rushil and I went furniture shopping and Sindhu went to a birthday party at Wonderla (waterpark). When we went to pick up my inlaws, the wedding was almost over, they were at the "homam"/fire part of the ceremony which brought back haunting memories of our homam ceremony, the heat, the smoke, the burning eyes and this after what seemed like 10 hours of endless pujas before that. The bride and groom, a very cute couple, were cheerfully performing the ceremonies with no complaints and had beaming smiles when we went to congratulate them. The groom said we can chat more at the reception and we all nodded in agreement knowing perfectly well we wouldn't be there. It's interesting how in India, everyone says they will attend a function when invited regardless of whether they will turn up or not and now even I have perfected that skill.
Since we arrived in time for the wedding meal, we sat down to enjoy the feast on a banana leaf. Prasad and I were secretly delighted because this is the best part of an Andhra wedding. The reception food is generally mediocre, there are so many people at the hall, the meal is typically eaten standing up, it's unpleasantly hot and the food is greasy. But the wedding meal is a sit-down affair, they serve numerous subjis, dal, rasam, sambar, pickles, chutneys, sweets and heart clogging but delicious yoghurt. This is what we envisioned when we sat down for our meal. However, we were served a few salads, some rice, watery buttermilk, sweet noodles and plenty of tasty coutu. Somewhere in the middle of the meal, it dawned on us, that maybe the bride was from Karnataka. I've always wondered why other than Bisibelebath, the local food never seemed very appetizing, this wedding reinforced that even more. That night, my cousins came over for dinner and they described the very same experience at other local weddings they attended. After 3 years, I'm glad we got a taste of Karnataka style wedding food.
Sindhu was reading this post as I was writing it and commented that she can't believe I can write so much about nothing. :-)
Since we arrived in time for the wedding meal, we sat down to enjoy the feast on a banana leaf. Prasad and I were secretly delighted because this is the best part of an Andhra wedding. The reception food is generally mediocre, there are so many people at the hall, the meal is typically eaten standing up, it's unpleasantly hot and the food is greasy. But the wedding meal is a sit-down affair, they serve numerous subjis, dal, rasam, sambar, pickles, chutneys, sweets and heart clogging but delicious yoghurt. This is what we envisioned when we sat down for our meal. However, we were served a few salads, some rice, watery buttermilk, sweet noodles and plenty of tasty coutu. Somewhere in the middle of the meal, it dawned on us, that maybe the bride was from Karnataka. I've always wondered why other than Bisibelebath, the local food never seemed very appetizing, this wedding reinforced that even more. That night, my cousins came over for dinner and they described the very same experience at other local weddings they attended. After 3 years, I'm glad we got a taste of Karnataka style wedding food.
Sindhu was reading this post as I was writing it and commented that she can't believe I can write so much about nothing. :-)
2 comments:
Moral of the story: if you're going to crash a wedding to mooch a good meal, check out the menu first, else, crash another wedding with better food!
Tell Sindhu Bindu that Aunty Teju thinks that she might take after her mother who is a perfect story teller. You have the art and ability to take an every day event and bring it to life for others and weave a story for everyone.
I do agree with you though - the sit down wedding meals are authentic. I love south Indian wedding foods [I include Maharashtrian meals]. I remember as a kid eating lemon rice, bisi bele bhaat, tamarind rice and yoghurt rice at almost all these weddings in Bangalore - maybe they were Tamil or Andhra weddings and not true Kannadiga weddings..
I also loved the sweet Pedhas you got at these weddings - especially Dharwadi pedas.
ahh!! You write so well..
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