Bangalore: (By Staff Reporter, Chef Pillai Times.)
Chef Pillai’s Onam Sadhya takeaway will be best remembered for the deliciousness of the various dishes and also the way it is packaged. Restaurant Chef Pillai has turned food packaging into a fine art, keeping the Onam tradition in mind. The various curries are painstakingly packed into ‘signature branded copper coloured tins’ that are both very attractive as well as can be used later for storing various spices and other ingredients in your kitchen. The rest of the dishes are packed in individual containers for easy serving. All of these containers are then packed in a large, branded box, complete with a fresh, green banana leaves!
The traditional way is to lay the individual items one by one starting with the fried banana chips and Sharkaravaratti. The banana leaf if placed with the tapered left end of the leaf to the left of the person. While the curries are generally placed in the top half of the leaf, the bottom half is where the rice is eaten with sambar and other curries. This is also where the Payasams are eaten mixed with plantains or bolis of just relished plain!
Chef Pillai is calling it the ‘Kollam’ Onam Sadhya, as it has some dishes endemic to Kollam, his hometown.