Fantasies,fantasies...

I have been wanting to write about something like this for a long time...but no occasion arises. So I'm taking the opportunity of my sister's impending wedding to write about some of my favourite food in Indian cuisine.This fantasy is purely a work of fiction,any resemblance to somebody else's drooling is purely coincidental.
Well, since it is an occasion of a marriage function, I think plaintain leaves will be most appropriate. Of course, the tables will be arranged in two files, facing each other. Glasses are arranged by the side of the leaves and water is poured into each.Now, we will start with the initial urgha, preferably lemon, followed by the beans and coconut poriyal. The banana chips are put simultaneously along with the starters on the leaf. Next come the "variety" rice like puliyodharai, tengai saadam, vegetable rice along with heavenly pachchadi. Now puliyodharai is a deceptively simple dish but when made with care, one can eat just that as the meal. Some prefer it with a lot of peanuts, but I don't care for them much.But since it won't be fair to the others, I continue my monologue about all things I like. The main courses start with the bringing of plain rice. Mullangi sambhar- made with the finest and the simplest of Indian spices, grated coconut and mullangi(white radish). The accompaniment of appalam gives an added taste to eating rice, sambhar and poriyal. The next is rasam with a helping of rice. Eating rasam saadam is an art which is mastered after attending many such functions. One has to be ready to receive it by making a space for making way for it with dykes of rice, and rasam in the middle. One can drink buckets of rasam, but unfortunately it is served after one is already half full. Appalams are circulating throughout by this point. The last of the rice items is the tayir saadam with vadu manga urgha.Oh!!!one can just lick one's fingers thinking about this combination.Oh, I forgot, I prefer it hot to the generally served cold fashion.While one is wiping one's leaf after eating a sumptuous meal, comes the payasam.Mmm...literally, food for thought. The payasam is either served in containers or also served on the plaintain leaf. Eating payasam after the rasam is like a piece of cake...one has already mastered the trick of making payasam stay on leaf. The meal is officially over with the folding of the leaf in the appropriate direction. But the after-meal beeda and vazhaiparam is still left. I am not much of a connoiseur of beeda, but many people I know sing praises of this stuff. One can end the meal with a manna of filter-kaapi served hot, with just the right amount of decoction and the right amount of sugar, served in mini-glasses. Wow, this is a meal my taste buds have been dying to eat, and I've been here only five months!!!
I repeat this is just an idea of how I like my meal.Actual dishes served in functions may vary.Please contact your local marriage administrator for more details.
Till then, a bon appetit to you!!
P.S...Any food made by amma tastes like heaven, especially nowadays that I have started cooking for myself, I have started appreciating the main ingredient my mother puts in what she cooks-love.