It was my first time attending a sangeet, which basically is a celebration that occurs a few days before the wedding ceremony. Sangeet literally means “music” in Sanskrit, and there was plenty of it at my friend’s sangeet. First a live band and singers played and sang Gujarati music while guests trickled in, then the bride, groom, relatives and close friends performed many choreographed dances to popular Bollywood songs, and finally the dance floor opened up for everyone to dance to whatever the live band and singers performed. The Gujarati music at the sangeet consisted of slower beats (slower than typical Bollywood music), where guests danced in circles.
The sangeet took place in a banquet hall in an otherwise empty mall:
The buffet was available all night in the back of the room so that guests could serve themselves whenever they wanted. The pure veg Jain food was really delicious, so I ate a few plates worth of food. A friend told me that their secret to making food tasty is to add a lot of ghee (Indian clarified butter) to everything. One of the items called panki was cooked between banana leaves:
According to the Internet, panki is usually made with rice flour batter. It was tart and very aromatic (pictured on the left below):
From the top left counterclockwise: blueberry delight, panki, paneer bhurjee (stir-fried mashed Indian cheese with spices), zucchini tornado, focaccia sandwich, and roomali roti (literally means “handkerchief bread” because it is folded like a handkerchief). The blueberry delight tasted like a good pie without a crust, and it had other ingredients in it so that the flavor of blueberry was not prominent. The paneer bhurjee was spicy and yummy, different from the usual egg bhurjee I get in school. I scooped up the paneer bhurjee with the roomali roti. I liked the fried zucchini enough to get seconds, and the focaccia sandwich had a good texture (no idea what was in it).
Below was my second plate:
From the left counterclockwise: kobi bhaji (Maharashtrian style cabbage stir fry with spices), dal makhani (whole black lentils and red kidney beans with butter), zucchini tornado, foot-long sandwich (obviously not a foot long here), panini grill, and misal (literally means “mixture”, a very popular roadside snack). The dal makhani was very creamy and smooth, the sandwich and panini were good although I don’t know what were in them, and the misal was ear-burning spicy. Later I had several rounds of pani puri (click here for my description of pani puri), which were very cold and refreshing.
After the dance performances, I helped myself to the dessert station:
From the top clockwise: cantaloupe sorbet in a slice of cantaloupe, lime sorbet in a hollowed-out lime, and guava sorbet in guava with chili powder sprinkled on top. I liked them all, so I also got a watermelon sorbet in a slice of watermelon (not pictured).
The food was excellent and the dancing was tons of fun; overall I had a great evening.
——————————————————————————————–
I was able to witness my first Jain ceremony, and it was very interesting. The ceremony took place on a Friday morning and afternoon. I was informed that a matchmaker determines which date (and even time) is auspicious for a couple to get married, which is why it is possible to have a ceremony conducted at 2 in the morning on a weekday. I was also informed that Jains do not eat after sunset; I don’t know if this applies only to big events or on an everyday basis.
The bride and groom sat on the stage in ornate chairs, while a guru chanted in Hindi and dripped ghee onto a fire. Relatives of the bride sat on cushions on one side of the stage, while relatives of the groom sat on cushions on the other side. Later, the bride and groom walked around the fire while relatives and friends threw rose petals on them, and people yelled at each other in Hindi. This process was repeated several times. When I asked another guest for a translation, she informed me that the tradition is for the sisters of the bride to insist that the marriage is not complete unless the groom gives them money, because they are giving their sister (the bride) away. The guests would then barter with the groom on how much money should be given for the bride. Priam said that traditionally the groom’s shoes are stolen and not returned until money is given, although I did not see this happen.
The buffet during the wedding ceremony had different options from the buffet at the sangeet. It consisted of a Mexican counter, an Italian counter, a namkeen (savory snacks) counter, a South Indian counter, and an Indian counter. Since the number of guests crowding the counters looked overwhelming, one of my friends suggested splitting up; she’ll get the Indian food, I’ll get the Italian food, and another friend will get the Mexican food.
My plate looked like this:
One of my friends gave me pureed mango halfway through my meal (not pictured here), and it was very tasty and refreshing. All the fried food on the left is from the namkeen counter. They were salty and doughy. At the top left is a quesadilla look-alike item from the Mexican counter, although it tasted Indian due to the spices. The nacho chips were thick in texture and the cheese very mildly flavored. The pizza slices were good and Indianized (Indian spices on a thin crust); I shared some with my friends.
On a different note, a week ago when ordering pizza, a friend asked me what topping I wanted (I said pepperoni). Pepperoni was not available, and this friend concluded that pepperonis on pizzas must be an American thing.
The dress code for this wedding is Indian formal, so I had a teacher help drape me in a sari. When I was tying my petticoat, she told me to tie it as tightly as I can or else the sari would not stay in place. I think I may have tied it too tightly because after eating from the plate pictured above, I had no appetite to eat seconds. As a result I did not try the Indian food, which my friend said was very good. I didn’t want to take any chances loosening my petticoat, so I just concluded my meal with two ice cream scoops:
I actually didn’t want the chocolate, but my English was lost in translation and the server gave it to me anyway. It tasted decent with the jam and crushed nuts sprinkled on top. I really liked the white scoop, which tasted similar to kesar pista (saffron pistachio).
Afterwards we took a bunch of pictures with the bride and groom. It was a fun afternoon, and after everything was done, the bride told me, “We are now one” (no one else in our group is married yet).
Note: If any of my knowledge about Indian culture are incorrect, please let me know. It is possible for me to misunderstand what people say.
American Foodie in Mumbai 