Thiruvananthapuram: Gone are the days when Onam meant just the 26-odd- dish sadhya.
Today in many homes, non-veg dishes add to the 26 dishes to make it even 30.
The prices of chicken, beef, buffalo meat and various varieties of fish have skyrocketed along with that of vegetables, say vendors.
A normal Onam sadhya would have the main dishes like parippu and pappadam, sambar, thoran, koottu curry, pachady, olan, pulisherry, rasam, butter milk, pickles and sweet items like banana chips, sharkara varatty, pineapple kichady, cheru pazham, ada payasam, kadala and boli with paal payasam.
But there are sadhya lovers who say that except for the pickles, the other dishes don’t have much spice which prompts the people in Malabar region to opt for non-veg dishes too.
But that trend has caught up in other regions too.
Aathira Khushi Bhaskar, 23, MCA student and a native of Kayamkulam, who is doing her project at schoolkutti.com here, can’t think of having a traditional Onasadhya without meat.
“Apart from getting all the grocery items for the Onasadhya, I have also got ‘naadan chicken.’ My mother has already made the paste to marinate the chicken that will add more spice to the feast,” said Aathira.
Rajamma Thomas, 73, a resident at Jawahar Nagar, is aso a non-veg fan. But she prefers to have vegetarian sadhya for lunch, but would go for non-veg dinner.
Thomas Mathew, 50, owner of the chain of Achayan’s fish stall here, says that compared to the previous Onam season, the prices of fish had skyrocketed.
“Vizhinjam and Poonthura sea fish catch has increased like never before. The price of mackerel and big anchovy are today priced at Rs 220 and Rs 300 per kg respectively”, said Mathew. But C. Antony, beef seller at the Palayam Connemara Market, said he sold between 100-120 kilo of beef on Uthradam day.
“Times have changed. I am a second generation meat seller and have been in this trade since 1974. Even the majority of the Hindus here have started buying beef and buffalo meat for Thiruonam Onasadhya,” said Antony who runs the Annai meat shop.
