Navratri is a nine-day period of once-a-day meal, meditation and sleep. While the nine days are meant to celebrate Shakti or the sacred feminine, the food regime has civilisational roots before religion. Food anthropologist Madhulika Dash says, ‘Fertility has been the core foundation of Navratri’.
To use up the summer’s bounty and preserve fruits and vegetables for the winter, especially in the highlands, was another, more practical justification for the set meal of nine days. The platter was also intended to prepare our bodies for the next cold season. The singhara (water chestnut) and koottu (buckwheat) ka atta (flour) clean, repair, and prepare our liver and gallbladder for the heat-producing food in winter, according to Dash, who explains the diet’s rationale. They are gluten-free and high in complex carbs and fibre. They regulate blood sugar, provide energy, and keep you full for an extended period of time. Additionally, they are abundant in important minerals. Dairy and gluten both take a while to digest, thus their use is generally limited.
A balanced platter energises us so much that dandiya becomes a joyous adrenaline-pumping affair. Buttermilk is good for gut health and calms and soothes your body processes, giving you a zen feeling. The ‘one large meal’ formula automatically translates into intermittent fasting as the food gap increases by 12 to 14 hours. The first sugar burst comes from fruits, which take time to be digested. And since you are not allowed to sleep for two hours after your big thali, the food doesn’t sit heavy on your stomach. Instead, it calms your brain and you slip into a deep sleep.
The food logic is fairly simple. The food is layered in such a manner that it looks rich. Because it is cooked in ghee (not deep fried but usually dribbled from the top), it builds satiety. Down south they have the pachadi, made of neem flowers, raw mango, jaggery, pepper powder and coconut shavings. This increases your saliva and helps you masticate your food better.
So, what does a typical thali look like in India?
Typically, it includes raw banana, wood apple or pumpkin chutney, papad, millets, most often root vegetables like potato or tapioca, and legumes. The meat-based dishes of Kashmir and east India also have a flavour of warrior cuisine. ‘The meat is traditionally served on platters in Kashmir for the first six days, along with a small amount of cumin, elephant foot or yam, papaya, ginger, and pepper. Vegetables were to be saved, sun dried, and preserved for the snowy months. The ninth and tenth days are when fish and meat come in eastern India’, according to Dash.
Most accounts of food historians attribute the current form of the thali to the 18th and 19th centuries. The Taj Hotels have had a consistent loyalty over the years with their Navaratri thali, according to executive chef Rishikesh Rai.
The amrood ke sabzi, makhane ke kheer, and buckwheat dumplings are worth trying at AnnaMaya. If you visit Sattvik, try the chikoo malai rabri, sabudana tikkis, or raw banana dahi bhalle. On a Navratri plate, you would never think to go to Gulati on New Delhi’s Pandara Road, a paradise for meat eaters.
Who knew the world of flavours in food science could be so vast?
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