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Avid sabha goers rarely step out of the place without grabbing a bite at the catering services, who\u2019ve set up shop within the premises. The overarching theme this year seems to be the availability of newer and healthier dishes, even as caterers seem to have spared no effort in curating menus filled with lip-smacking dishes, including a variety of sweets and snacks.NEW IS THE NORM<\/span>\u201cWe\u2019ve introduced new dishes, many of which would normally not be available outside one\u2019s home,\u201d says Nirmala Venkatesan of Sastha Catering Services at The Music Academy. \u201cOur elai saapadu comprises many new dishes this year, like arachuvitta sambar, appalam vathakuzhambu, kothamalli sadham (made using basmati rice), Chettinad rasam, nellikai rasam, kovil milagu sadham , and kovil puliyodharai , among others.\u201d\u201cWe\u2019ve tried to be innovative and offer dishes that restaurants won\u2019t do,\u201d says Sowmya of Arusuvai Caterers at Vidya Bharathi Mandapam. Their menu comprises Tamil Nadu staples like nonbu adai, thenga poorana kozhukattai, pachadis made using orange skin and veppam poo, and more. \u201cWe make sure not to repeat our menu,\u201d Sowmya adds.Kumar of Sattva Catering says, \u201cThis year, we\u2019ve introduced new dishes made using millets, including dosais and idlis , as we\u2019ve turned our focus towards offering more healthier options this year.\u201d \u201cWe\u2019ve even introduced sweets made using karupatti –like karupatti kaju katli and karupatti Boost poli Boost poli kesari, among others, this year,\u201d he adds.Ask him about the newest inclusions to his menu, and K Srinivasan, son of Mountbatten Mani Iyer (who passed away at 93 last year), says, \u201cI\u2019ve introduced chikoo kozhukattai , pineapple kuzhi paniyaram , red banana kuzhi paniyaram and kozhukattai , and several other dishes based on fruits. We even have dishes made using vegetables and greens, like palak greens dosai, methi greens dosai , and gongura dosai , while our sprout idli is a hit among our guests.\u201d None of the dishes, he claims, are namesake and have the fruits or vegetables infused properly in them.YOUNGSTERS ARE THIS SEASON\u2019S TARGET CROWD<\/span>This year, attracting young crowds has been key, as they prefer noodles and pizza over Mysore bonda and bajji . Revanth, a teenager, says, \u201cI really liked the podi idli and filter coffee I tried.\u201d Kumar adds that youngsters enjoy vegetable chapati and ammini kozhukattai , while Srinivasan points to chocolate-flavoured idlis and dosais .Caterers deny exorbitant pricing; point out to footfalls<\/span>One sticking point from last year remains the price of lunch, ranging from \u20b9400 to \u20b91,000 on New Year\u2019s Day. \u201cAt the Music Academy, it costs over \u20b92,000 for a family of four,\u201d says Malini, an IT professional who had come with her family.While Manohar, a business owner, says meals above \u20b9500 are expensive for many. Caterers say prices re\ufb02ect costs. \u201cWe are not repeating the menu,\u201d says Sowmya, pricing her elai saapadu at \u20b9650. Nirmala notes footfalls are up despite lunch at \u20b9550, echoed by Srinivasan, who is af\ufb01rmative about the sentiment, with his \u20b9685 lunch featuring his eight decade-old badam halwa.What about the New Year specials?<\/span>For the New Year, Nirmala, the canteen caterer, is going Kerala style. \u201cWe\u2019ve decided to cover an assortment of dishes from the neighbouring state. Our offerings will include chakka pradhaman, olan, erissery, and kalan . This is exclusive for New Year\u2019s Day,\u201d she says.Written By:<\/span> Praveen Kumar S<\/span><\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source timesofindia.indiatimes.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cWe\u2019ve tried to be innovative and offer dishes that restaurants won\u2019t do,\u201d says Sowmya of Arusuvai Caterers at Vidya Bharathi Mandapam. Avid sabha goers rarely step out of the place without grabbing a bite at the catering services, who\u2019ve set up shop within the premises. The overarching theme this year seems to be the availability […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2215214,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[428073,428075,425080,428074],"class_list":["post-2215213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-margazhi","tag-margazhi-sabha","tag-margazhi-season","tag-sabha-canteens"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/New-arrivals-high-prices-healthier-options-What-dominates-sabha.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2215213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2215213"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2215213\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2215215,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2215213\/revisions\/2215215"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2215214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2215213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2215213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2215213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}