Celebrating Ranjit's birthday

Thiswas real special! On Thursday, we celebrated my husband's birthday! Being a weekday, unfortunately we couldn't do much, but I got the opportunity to take my husband out for a sadhya. Kerala is known for its traditional sadhyas, a vegetarian meal served with boiled rice and a host of side-dishes. The sadhya is complemented by payasam, a sweet milk dessert native to Kerala. The sadhya is, as per custom, served on a banana leaf. The southern Kerala dishes are often spiced with garlic, whereas in North Kerala garlic is generrally avoided in all vegetarian dishes. Traditional dishes include sambar, aviyal, kaalan, theeyal, thoran, injipully, pulisherry, appam , kappa (tapioca), puttu(steam cake) and puzhukku. Near our home, they have recently opened up Kerala House, where you they serve sadhya. Ranjit was delighted, to say the least. It had been quite some time since he got to have traditional "mallu" food that too on a banana leaf... made him quite nostalgic.