The Pachadi That Made Me Accept Sorakaya (Bottle Gourd)
If I’m being completely honest, sorakaya was never my thing. I could still manage ridge gourd somehow, but bottle gourd… no. My amma tried her best to include it in our meals, and I tried my best to avoid it. It was almost like a silent agreement between us. She would cook it, and I would quietly find ways to push it aside. Even now, at my in-laws’ place, whenever we make sambar, it’s filled with all kinds of vegetables. And somehow, without fail, my plate ends up with more sorakaya than anything else. I still try to escape it, and my husband still calls me out for it. Some habits don’t change that easily. But this story isn’t about me not liking sorakaya. It’s about the one way I found to make peace with it. Sorakaya pachadi. Strangely, it’s not something that either side of my family really enjoys. It’s not a crowd favourite. In fact, most of the time, it ends up being made just for me, by me. And that itself makes it a little special. I remember one day when amma asked me to ...