Appetizers, Main meal and sweet dish…
Is it just elite class that can afford to have 3-4 courses in a meal or there are cultures where people have more than set of food items at a time (lunch, dinner, etc)?
How do you see traditional Thaali carrying various items that was not probably limited to elite class.
Re: Number of Meal Courses in different Cultures
Lunch: Single dish and fruit.
Dinner: Same dish from lunch or new dish followed by sweet (date or halwa, mithai etc)
For guests… more than one dishes… 
Re: Number of Meal Courses in different Cultures
I'm talking of general practice.
Okay, lets be more specific.
Where does this three course meal trend originated? Do all cultures follow this just on occasions like Eid, etc , when they invite someone or its followed as routine in some cultures?
Re: Number of Meal Courses in different Cultures
There are a few cultures in which meals generally consist of 3 to 4 courses, not just the elite class. However, I don't think having more than one course implies that a large amount of food is consumed, but rather that the meal is divided into parts and served at different times. For example, most starters, side dishes and desserts are not very substantial and don't make up a large part of the meal.
Also, have you noticed that some cultures are not really big on sweets and don't have a wide variety of desserts?
Re: Number of Meal Courses in different Cultures
Our culture has very few sweet dishes of its own or may be I don't have exposure to it.
You might be surprised to know that in Sindh, there was this tradition, where in weddings they used to distribute sugar ( a cup or half) as sweet dish. This is not old story. It was prevalent a decade back.
Re: Number of Meal Courses in different Cultures
^ That's interesting. Was the sugar distributed during the meal as part of the meal or was it packaged nicely and given to the guests as more of a wedding favour?
Re: Number of Meal Courses in different Cultures
In our childhood, we saw ladies getting that in their rumaal. All ladies going to attend wedding ceremony had to keep a rumaal with them. In case they forgot, they used their dupatta or palloo of their chadar to collect sugar (a cup or a half). Afterwards, some people started packing it in small transparent shoppers like the ones used in gola ganda.
On sixth day of birth of babies (chhatti), people used to sent Dai / Hajaman to distribute sweet (normally it was zarda known as mitho bhat in Sindhi). People used to give Dai some money for sharing khushkhabri and that money was known as 'khand - sugar in Sindhi'. That also tells that initially people used to distribute sugar (and entry of zarda and other sweets came after centuries).
Re: Number of Meal Courses in different Cultures
In our childhood, we saw ladies getting that in their rumaal. All ladies going to attend wedding ceremony had to keep a rumaal with them. In case they forgot, they used their dupatta or palloo of their chadar to collect sugar (a cup or a half). Afterwards, some people started packing it in small transparent shoppers like the ones used in gola ganda.
On sixth day of birth of babies (chhatti), people used to sent Dai / Hajaman to distribute sweet (normally it was zarda known as mitho bhat in Sindhi). People used to give Dai some money for sharing khushkhabri and that money was known as 'khand - sugar in Sindhi'. That also tells that initially people used to distribute sugar (and entry of zarda and other sweets came after centuries).
aur app ki paidaish par kiya howa tha?
Re: Number of Meal Courses in different Cultures
aur app ki paidaish par kiya howa tha?
Till those days, mithai / zarda had entered the scene.
The most common meetha in our home was sooji ka halwa (known as seero). I never liked that. Oh and in some families they used to eat this halwa with white rice prepared with choti ilaichi.
The other traditional meetha that was common was boiled siwayyan with sugar. Though, on Eid day, they also prepared doodh wali siwayyan, but Sheerkhurma is recent entry in Sindhi culture. We did have siwayyan banae wali machine and in last Ashra of Ramadan, all family members were busy making siwayyan and the charpais in sehan were full of siwaayan.
Further, there is this mithi tikya that my amma always accompanied with me during college days and those tikkis and packets of biscuits did provide me some relief when just after Eid ul Adha of 2007 Benazir was assassinated and the city remained closed for 3 days.
Traditional kheer (known as kheerni in Sindhi.. Milk is known as Kheer is Sindhi) was also there, but it was prepared rare occasions like Eid.
Oh and in rainy days, there was this 'Taahiri'. Sindhi Taahiri is different from that known to Urdu speaking families. Its simply guR wale chawal.
In weddings, when groom's family provide dry fruits, etc to bride, bride's family make this item 'jaandro' from maida (with all dry fruit in it). Its quite close to Punjabi choori.
Ok so the way I see it, to get to the main meal, we dont have much concept of course meal, rather side dishes. Course meals setups don't have the concept of side dishes. Plus course meals in a party setup are banquet meals. Our parties are designed around Buffett style.
Then comes sweet dish (muqawwee, we have plenty, and then plenty variations of one dish, so I am not sure why to think that we dint have enough sweet dishes)
Then comes some type of tea (regular, green, Kashmiri, etc)
Then mouth freshener (paan, gutka, saunf etc)
Re: Number of Meal Courses in different Cultures
Ok so the way I see it, to get to the main meal, we dont have much concepts of course meal, rather side dishes. Course meals setups don't have the concept of side dishes. Plus course meals in a party setup are banquet meals. Our parties are designed around Buffett style.
Then comes sweet dish (muqawwee, we have plenty, and then plenty variations of one dish, so I am not sure why to think that we dint have enough sweet dishes)
Then comes some type of tea (regular, green, Kashmiri, etc)
Then mouth freshener (paan, gutka, saunf etc)
I was talking particularly about sweet dishes that were common in Sindhi households. Though, with the passage of time and introduction of TV channels and cooking programs, now they have a variety of sweets that has been adapted from other cultures and prepared at home. I've a very limited exposure of sweets in Sindh. This doesn't include sweets that were being sold in market, as there was always a variety of these items available in market which included local as well as items which came from other cultures (from ras gulla to qalaqand... all came from other cultures).
Re: Number of Meal Courses in different Cultures
Till those days, mithai / zarda had entered the scene.
The most common meetha in our home was sooji ka halwa (known as seero). I never liked that. Oh and in some families they used to eat this halwa with white rice prepared with choti ilaichi.
The other traditional meetha that was common was boiled siwayyan with sugar. Though, on Eid day, they also prepared doodh wali siwayyan, but Sheerkhurma is recent entry in Sindhi culture. We did have siwayyan banae wali machine and in last Ashra of Ramadan, all family members were busy making siwayyan and the charpais in sehan were full of siwaayan.
Further, there is this mithi tikya that my amma always accompanied with me during college days and those tikkis and packets of biscuits did provide me some relief when just after Eid ul Adha of 2007 Benazir was assassinated and the city remained closed for 3 days.
Traditional kheer (known as kheerni in Sindhi.. Milk is known as Kheer is Sindhi) was also there, but it was prepared rare occasions like Eid.
Oh and in rainy days, there was this 'Taahiri'. Sindhi Taahiri is different from that known to Urdu speaking families. Its simply guR wale chawal.
In weddings, when groom's family provide dry fruits, etc to bride, bride's family make this item 'jaandro' from maida (with all dry fruit in it). Its quite close to Punjabi choori.
Sweet dishes in my family....