Weekend food plan: Makar Sankranti menus

Sankranti thali

Oota Bangalore is offering a vegetarian Sankranti thali for lunch between from 10 to 14 January. There’s a celebratory yellu-bella (sesame, jaggery, roasted peanuts and chana dal), paired with yellu neeru (sesame-jaggery cooler flavoured with cardamom). Begin the meal with molike kalu kosambari (sprouted green gram salad), avarekalu masala vada (hyacinth bean and chana dal vada) and badanekayi bajji (stuffed brinjal fritters). The mains are jolada roti (sorghum flatbread), kai (coconut) chutney, steamed rice, bele saru (pigeon pea lentil curry), bhaji palya (mixed vegetable), dantina soppu avarekalu palya (green amaranth and hyacinth bean curry), mavinkai chitranna (raw mango rice). End the meal with sweet treats, like genasu payasa (sweet potato kheer), agasi unde (flax seed laddu) and sihi huggi (rice and moong dal payasa). The dishes are available separately on their a la carte menu as well. The thali is priced at ₹950, including taxes.

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Lohri feast

The Delhi restaurant Ikk Panjab has introduced Lohri dishes along with winter delicacies. There’s the quintessential warm makki di roti with sarson da saag. Festive specials include gur kheer, pinni (ghee-laden wheat laddoos with dry fruits), panjeeri and grandma-style gajar halwa or gajrela studded with dry fruits. The dishes are on their menu until the season ends.

Pongal special

Dakshin Canteen in Delhi’s Amar Colony is a South Indian casual restaurant. For Pongal, they have a planned a feast of a thali with more than 15 items. It features the traditonal venn Pongal streaked with ghee, keerai vadai (spinach vada), pineapple rasam, raw banana roast, arachavittu (ground spice) sambar, beans parippu usali (dry beans preparation), cucumber pachadi, bitter gourd chips, tomato gojju, coconut rice, vegetable and peanut kootu, mor kozhambu (buttermilk curry), appalam and the star dish paal poli chakkara pongal (sweet pongal). The unlimited thali, priced at ₹1199 (including taxes), will be available on January 14 and 15.

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