The serving order on a vegetarian wedding leaf
Salt at the tip, payasam near the end: how a Madurai wedding lunch is laid out and served, course by course.
Planning a muhurtham breakfast
Timing, menu and why our team reaches the hall at 3 am.
The muhurtham breakfast is the hardest meal of a Tamil wedding to get right. It is served early, often before 6 am, to guests who have travelled overnight and to a family that has not slept.
The menu is simple and must be perfect: soft idli, ven pongal with plenty of ghee and pepper, crisp medu vada, sambar, coconut and tomato chutneys, rava kesari and filter coffee. Some families add a sweet pongal or a mini dosa.
Our team reaches the hall at 3 am with batter fermented overnight in our own kitchen. Idlis go into steamers at 4, pongal is cooked in two batches, and vadas are fried in small lots so the first guest and the hundredth both get them crisp.
Coffee needs its own person. We brew decoction fresh every half hour and mix it with hot milk at a counter, so nobody gets a lukewarm tumbler. It is a small thing, and it is often what guests remember.
