How to eat an Onam sadhya: a guide to the banana-leaf feast
Onam is Kerala's harvest festival, celebrated in late August or September, and its centrepiece is the sadhya: a feast of many small dishes served together on a banana leaf. Every dish has its own place on the leaf, and there is an order to eating it.
If you have never had one, the leaf can look like a lot. It is easier than it looks.
What is on the leaf
A sadhya is vegetarian. The dishes fall into four groups:
Crunch and tang (the small things at the top of the leaf)
- Banana chips (kaya varuthathu) and jaggery-coated banana chips (sarkaravaraty)
- Pappadam, crisp wafers
- Achar, spicy pickle, and pulinji, a sweet-sour chutney of tamarind, ginger and jaggery
Curries and vegetables
- Thoran: stir-fried vegetables with grated coconut
- Avial: vegetables in a coconut and yogurt sauce with curry leaves
- Olan: ash gourd and cowpeas in coconut milk
- Erisseri: pumpkin and coconut curry
- Kootukary: vegetables and lentils with coconut
- Pachadi and kichadi: sweet-sour yogurt dishes
Rice and what you pour over it
- Matta rice: Kerala's red, nutty rice, in the middle of the leaf
- Sambar: a lentil and vegetable stew with tamarind
- Pulissery: a mild yogurt curry
- Rasam: tangy, peppery tomato soup
- Moru: spiced buttermilk
The sweet finish
- Payasam: a milk-based dessert with jaggery and vermicelli or rice ada
Our own sadhya has eighteen dishes, listed on the Onam sadhya page.
How to eat it, step by step
- Use your hands. A sadhya is traditionally eaten with your right hand, and it tastes different that way.
- Start dry, go wet. Begin with rice and the dry dishes: a little of each, such as thoran, avial and olan.
- Move to the pours. Mix sambar into the rice, then rasam, then pulissery. Mix with your fingertips and eat in small handfuls.
- Sweet, then cool. Payasam comes next, then moru and the last of the rice to close the meal.
- Fold the leaf toward you. When you are done, fold the leaf toward you. It is the polite way to say thank you.
A few things worth knowing
- The leaf is placed with its narrow tip to your left.
- You do not mix everything at once. The pleasure is in tasting each dish on its own, then in combinations.
- Ask for refills: seconds of rice and curries are part of the generosity of a sadhya.
- Every dish is vegetarian, but several contain dairy (yogurt, buttermilk, the milk in payasam). Tell us about any allergies when you order.
Have a sadhya in Berlin
We cook the sadhya around Onam on a few set days, and the dates sell out. Pre-orders are announced ahead of the festival; see the Onam sadhya page for details and past seasons. Not Onam season? Follow us for the next date, or ask about catering for a family celebration.