Holiday meals and holiday drama

memories, prompts, Sadje's View, You Asked

This week we are asked to share some of the celebration/ holiday meals from our past.

The celebration in my culture are usually centered around the two Eids and birthdays and anniversaries.

For Eid, we would go to our parent’s house for lunch. And when my in-laws were living, to their homes. But when they passed away, we used to be the hosts for both sides of the family. Now we only invite our children and their families for Eid lunch.

I have mentioned food in one of Share Your World posts. We are big on traditional cuisine on festivals.

Our food is rich and revolves around meat/ poultry and fish. It’s also influenced by the weather. In summers, we go for light easily digestible dishes while in winters, the dishes are richer and more calorie-rich.

A typical Eid lunch menu in summer would have a variety of biryani or pulao ( rice cooked with chicken or mutton), some gravy made of meat or chicken, kebabs, haleem or karhi ( curry made of yogurt, chickpea flour with pakoras added in the end) salads and for dessert, we have kheer ( rice pudding in milk) or ice cream.

In winter, the menu would also contain Barbeque meat, paye ( mutton hoof curry with mutton), fried fish, and maybe some Italian dish like lasagna and for dessert, we typically have carrot halwa!

Wherever you have some or all the family together, there’s bound to be drama.

People arriving late and at odds with each other is very common. We have instances where people ( family) were hours late and not talking to each other. People have heated arguments during the meal and then someone would be unhappy at the eidi ( money given as a gift on eid) being inadequate. These were usually children as the tradition is that elders/ parents give eidi to their children, grandchildren, nieces, and nephews. Older brothers and sisters hand over money to younger siblings too.

I have great fun memories of Eid lunches, from my childhood to recent years.

Written for Throwback Thursday- Holiday meal hosted by Lauren and Maggie

#Keepitalive

#TBTMEMORY

Published by Sadje

I am writing to express my opinion, share my experiences and to maybe provide some insight. My blog is addressing women at 50 ( but men are welcome to read my posts) ,their issues and the questions that come up at this stage in life. I don’t aim to teach, but to learn together.

Published

35 thoughts on “Holiday meals and holiday drama”

    1. Thanks Diana. It is. Though I don’t know about others, but after spending hours cooking it, I don’t enjoy it when I serve it. I enjoy it later as leftovers.

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  10. Just the very thought of all that yummy food you mentioned in this post have triggered the enzymes in my tongue 👅 I’m a pure eggetarian now but as a child, I’ve secretly had non-vegetarian food. Some dishes become particularly popular during Bakrid, one being mutton brain fry! I ate it at the age of 4 but still remember the taste very fondly 🤤 (That’s the “meatiest” thing I’ve ever eaten) And Carrot Halwa, Kheer, BIRYANI!!! Yum!!! I just had Biryani last night but I’ll have to say you’ve tempted me so much with the first two 😝 Time to grab some dessert! 🍮 Such beautiful festival memories… Very happy times to even read about 😻 The Eidi “arguments” probably do seem cute afterwards. 🥰

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    1. Thanks a lot Sam! The food is indeed yummy and rich. One meal is enough for the entire day. I’m an almost vegetarian myself, I eat chicken but rarely. I love veggies and dahls. That’s why I add at least one vegetarian dish to the menu. Eidi arguments do look funny now, but at that point they were irritating.

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            1. I think it’s a idea that only people of the sun-continent have. In the west it’s very common to have milk with food, specially children have it.

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