Keeping a lunch fresh until one o’clock
Steel carriers, separate compartments and a hard rule about time.
How we plan a four-week menu
Why sambar never comes twice in a week, and how the season changes the list.
A monthly lunch plan only works if people do not get bored. So we plan a 28-day menu in which no main dish repeats within a week and no poriyal repeats within four days.
We start with the base: sambar, vathal kuzhambu, mor kuzhambu, more kootu and the rasams. Each one gets two days a month. Then we pair each base with vegetables that suit it and are in season at Koyambedu that month. Beans and carrot in winter, drumstick and raw mango in summer, greens all year.
We write the menu on Sunday and share it on WhatsApp so subscribers can see what is coming. If a dish does not suit you, you can swap that day for paruppu sadam or curd rice.
Feedback changes the menu every month. When a dish gets a lot of complaints, like our first attempt at beetroot kootu, it goes. When people ask for something again and again, like the Friday payasam, it stays.
