UAE: Onam festival comes early; restaurants dish out gourmet meals

One of the best parts about living in Dubai is the opportunity to experience various traditional cuisines. The feast that accompanies the harvest festival of the southern Indian state of Kerala — Onam — is one such experience. Served at lunchtime on a banana leaf with over 25 curries and rice, it is a unique meal.

Over the last few years, the demand for this feast — called Onasadhya (Onam feast) — has risen exponentially with people of various nationalities flocking to try the all-vegetarian fare. With Onam just around the corner, restaurants around the country are starting to serve the sadhya early and over various times to cater to the burgeoning demand.

The Indian fine dining restaurant The Crossing is teaming up with self-taught chef Simy Mathews to plate up a gourmet sadhya over 9 days for dinner as well as lunch. Served as three menus of vegan, vegetarian and non-vegetarian, the price of the sadhya starts at Dh175.

Thiruvonam, or the main day of Onam, will fall on Tuesday, August 29. It will come at the end of a ten-day celebration that begins with Atham.

“We have received an immense amount of interest,” said chef Simy. “Since most places serve sadhya only as lunch, there were many who couldn’t try it because they are working. That is why we decided to start the dinner menu. The seats are being booked out really quickly.”

While most of the dishes have been preserved in its authentic form, she along with head chef Jithin Joshi have given the payasam (dessert) a unique gourmet twist. Two or three kinds of payasam- a pudding of pouring consistency- is served at every sadhya. At The Crossing, two kinds of payasam have been layered and topped with coconut foam to create a fine dining dessert. The two chefs shared a video of them trying it out

Sadhya for 15 days

At the popular Indian restaurant Lallumma’s, sadhya has been planned for over 15 days in two locations. “Every year we have a lot of enquiries, and this year is no different,” said restaurant co-owner and head chef Fathima Arzoo. “We have already received bookings to have in-house sadhya for 15 days across our outlets in Karama and Qusais. There are more orders for deliveries and takeaways as well

The restaurant is serving up a mini sadhya of just 14 items for the days of Onam while reserving the full sadhya for the weekend. “Since Onam is the middle of the week, we though people might want something lighter after which they can go back to office.”