The way to a man's heart...

I wouldn't say I'm much of a foodie. I'm definitely no gourmet. I'd blink if you brought me an assortment of cheeses which seem very similar and asked me to pick the finest one. Or to even identify the cheese. I don't know any, save for Paneer (ah, glorious paneer!) and mozzarella (there can't be a better topping for pizza). But I'm no glutton either. I use a fork and knife, when it's expected. ;)
Anyway, the reason I'm writing this is that I just got back from my neighbour's wedding reception. And I always have a soft spot for the food at Tamil weddings. It can almost never taste bad .(Only mom's cooking can actually never taste bad. Yes, you're probably thinking "tied to apron strings", but you try getting back home after 4 months of oily hostel food and tell me how it feels)
And believe me, I've been to a good number of weddings and I've seen some fairly interesting menus. Yet, no matter how weird or mismatched the items are, they are never bad. Maybe it's something to do with the sense of the occasion.

For those of you who haven't eaten at a Tamil wedding, here's how it goes. First, a banana leaf is spread in front of you. You're supposed to sprinkle water on it and wipe away the dust on it. Then comes the sweet, which can be anything ranging from thenga poli (fairly tamil) to rasmalai (totally bong. I'm just glad no one's served me a brownie yet).

Then comes pickle, salt(for the curd rice that will follow), raita or thayir pachchadi. This is followed by the first course, boiled rice and rasam. Next comes boiled rice and sambar. And finally boiled rice and buttermilk (or 'more'). The side course is usually one dry potato dish, one semi-dry gourd dish, and avial (actually keralite, but who cares?). Top it all off with paan, gulkhand and some other paraphernalia wrapped up in a betel leaf. The 'beeda'. Nothing quite like a well-done beeda to round off a meal. Can't you just picture it? Mmm-mm.

That's lunch. For breakfast, substitute pickle, salt and raita with chutneys (three at least: coconut, onion and coriander), potato dish with 'poori masala', and the main courses with idlis, pongal, dosai, vadai. Finally, replace beeda with filter coffee.
For dinner, replace boiled rice with sambar sadam/bisibele baath or pulao, chuck out rasam for poori, chappati or oothappam. And along with beeda, include ice-cream with fruits, or jalebi (yes, nothing Tamil about it, but who's gonna argue when it tastes great?)

Perhaps the most interesting menu I've heard of was in this article written many years ago in a Hindu Sunday supplement. It was by this columnist, about his daughter's wedding. He apparently served a meal that would've been considered totally cuckoo down south. There was Mangalore bonda, pongal and a lot of other totally unrelated items. It was a way to get his northie friends talking about South Indian food (he lived in Delhi) and how it's so much more than idli-dosa-vada (and the pronunciation is wrong, most importantly. It's dos-eye not dos-ah or do-shah). I admire the guy's guts. But I don't think I would've cared too much for the food!

The point of this whole meandering exercise is this. If what they say about the way to a man's heart being through his stomach is true, I suspect that a good number of Tamil men marry early just to eat at their own wedding feast!

P.S. you can check out aforementioned neighbour's blog at berserkblogger.wordpress.com And wish the guy a happy married life. I hear that his new bride's a gem.

Update 19/1/08: Mum (being the master chef she is. Honest!) pionted out an error in the lunch menu. It's rice and sambar first, followed by rice and rasam.