Indian Weekend Foods

[Suvir Saran]

In India there are very typical dishes that would be eaten over the weekend.

Does anyone here have such favorites?

What are they?

Where do you find them?

Why are these dishes appealing?

[anil]

In my limited exposure to weekend special foods in India, I found the following:

1. In my hostel, Sunday lunch was Chicken (non veg) and Kheer, or Mix Vegetables

2. Among the North Indians who ate rotis/naan during the week, it was Rice.

  During winters, it was mooli paratha at lunch eaten in the courtyards in the sun.

Finally, the dishes on weekend also reflected the desires of the visiting weendend

guests.

Not much help here  :confused:

[Suvir Saran]

Raajmaah Chaawal ( Kidney beans and rice )

Karhi Chaawal ( Sour chickpea-yogurt sauce with fritters )

And of course parathas are a given as you say for lunch in the daytime winter sun... I remember that picture vividly.

[ajay]

In our house,

weekend foods include things like bateta puwa (potatoes and rice flakes?) uupma (rava), which is a form of cream of wheat.

Dinner items usually tend towards "junk" foods like bhajia (i'm not sure if bhajia and pakora are the same or if not what the subtle differences are) especially methy but all vegetables.  Pav Bhaji is also a favorite.  Other dishes include khandvi, and thali dhokra.  

Foods like idli and sambar, staples of south india are likely to be consumed on weekends in our gujrati household.

[Suvir Saran]

Nice Ajay.. I wish I could have spent some time in your household.. soouns like fun.

[macrosan]

I have a regular Saturday night Indian meal at home, but prepared by my local Indian (Pakistani) take-away restaurant. My absolute favorite is a dish I've seen nowhere else, Tandoori Garlic Chilli Chicken which is exactly that --- Tandoori chicken cooked with garlic and green chilli peppers. It's spicy, it's hot, it's delicious.

I work my way around their menu, but this seems to get ordered about every second week  

I have a bread (naan, paratha or puri) with it, and onion salad or mint yoghurt, and often a bhaji (mushroom or sag or bindi).

I have yet to steel myself for an Indian ice-cream for dessert    but one day ....

[vivin]

Every weekend we would eat rice with Punjabi Chhole (blackened and spiced with Mango Pickle masala) and Rajmah (punjabi style kidney beans). Parathas for breakfast. Dinner at my dad's restaurant (I was able to go over the weekend) would consist mainly of tandoori items - start with some seekh kabab at around 8pm (while standing next to the tandoor). Followed by chicken malai kabab at 10pm. Dinner with Dad at 12 at night would be tandoori roti (did not like naan that much) with Butter Chicken (that was famous all over New Delhi) followed by some Kulfi (the oringial from this place near Karol Bagh). I would work at my dad's restaurant during summer vacation and repeat this routine every night. what a life. Suvir, no thanx for reminding me of this. To think I could still be doing it...

[Bux]

From ajay's post about "junk" food (not that I consider fritters of any sort as junk food--well done they'd be high on my list of favorite foods in any culture) I'm led to believe that weekend meals are more relaxed and informal. Am I correct?

I think in the west, Sunday dinner has traditionally been a large family meal, but I suspect that is no longer true in the U.S. In fact, lots of American families seem to hardly ever gather around the table for dinner and I'm not sure if weekends are better or worse in that regard. My guess is that patterns of life are changing the world over. Is that not true in India today. Of course I'm asking that of a group who are living far away from India and that in itself represents changes of several sorts.

[Suvir Saran]

Times are surely changing.. But Indians still eat most all meals around a table with family and friends.  In fact, my grandmother waited for my siblings and I to come back from school before she ate lunch... she was not young.. but that was the tradition... And weekend mornings, breakfast too became a family ritual.  For us it was no novelty, but perhaps, that is what makes food both a culinary, a social and a familial treat.  It is that bond between food and history and politics that Steven seems to have difficulty in accepting or grasping or both.  But to us Indians, it is second nature.

And Vivin... aren't you lucky.  Your father's restaurant had the best Tandoori Rotis.. That was Sunday dinner for my family... Dum Aloos (baby whole potatoes with woody spices and blind baked), Paneer (Indian cheese cooked either with spinach or with peas), Sabut Bhindi(whole stuffed okra), Kamal Kakree ke Chips (chips made from lotus root and spiced) and Koftas with your fathers restaurants rotis.. Brought hot and fresh.  The fetcher would make two trips, so we could have hot bread with the meal.

And yes... Kadhi Chaawal, Rajmah Chaawwal, Kaale Chane for lunch with onions bought at your fathers restaurant.