A belated entry for our Irish Onam '07

Onam is over and I just had a very heavy sigh of relief. Till then it was like Ayyo! Onam is coming, I should do this... I should do that..- a number of planning, schedules and what not. Though honestly I don’t like cooking, I like feeding people with whatever I make. No it’s not that kind of ‘sadistic feeling’ some people may already be thinking. I really don’t want to poison them or make their stomach upset for ever, by making them the dump yard of my experiments. I truly, love the ‘idea’ of cooking on my own and giving dinners to friends. Anyone can dream, right?


So, this year, as Onam fell on a weekend, I was happy. I could cook and I could take one day leave after that to give my body the well-earned rest. On Friday I gave a crash course to both my Irish colleagues here on Onam. I could see their imagination go wild (and their pupils getting dilated) on the idea of ‘eating on a plantain leaf’. One of them even asked me about the size of the leaf. God, did he really think that we were originally some tribesmen from the darkest forests in Kerala! Anyway I told my female colleague that I am going to cook, yes cook, and that I am taking a precautionary leave on Monday in case anything goes wrong with my back or stomach! She was more supportive, may be because she compared it with the huge turkey roast they did for Christmas. But my male friend was still apprehensive. And I think that’s because he is a bachelor!


I shopped alone for the feast because my hubby and shopping never ever go together. If we wanted peace in the house, I have to do shopping on my own. Though he just did ‘pushing-the-trolley’ maneuver, he complained as though he did the whole task of making list, finding the items, comparing prices and checking them. So, I was better off without him in that task. That meant pushing the full packed trolley for some 2.5 km on my own (which was terrible, in an uneven pathway!) and then driving alone after that. Anyway I went to some African store and even bought plantain, which was not available in Pakistani store. I decided to do everything the hard way using coconut oil (which will be as hard as frozen butter in Irish climate) and using boiled rice, which took ages in getting cooked!


Anyway I woke up Saturday with a migraine which made me go panic. But after taking painkillers it went down and I started preparing for Sundays lunch menu. I usually work in kitchen with Malayalam CDs blasting in high volume - to boost my mood. It lessens the actual burden of cooking, for me. So with that, I started. My menu was:
Parippu curry, sambar, rasam, beans mezhukku puratty, carrot thoran, tuna vattichathu(non-veg), pavakkai fry. Pappadam and rice was meant for next day. Payasam (dessert), aviyal, pachadi was planned to be brought by our guests. I knew how to make aviyal. But ‘pachadi’ and ‘paayasam’ looked like “Mt.Everest” to me!



Anyway, I am not self-praising anymore… I finally did it and my back is still intact after that, along with my guests’ stomachs. Also none of us didn’t contract diarrhea. And in fact I got compliments, too! So, I think, apart from pookkalam, we irish-mallus celebrated Onam with ishtyle, in Ireland too!


Fiction: My guests (and may be the readers) thought my husband helped me.
Fact: He did, grate 5 carrots, in the whole process!