For Onam, this Thrissur patisserie has a pastry sadya

Experience a unique 'Pastry Sadya' concept by Thrissur-based The Lilly's, featuring Kerala-inspired desserts and Onam Dream Cakes.

Since it is the season of sadya with its vegetarian and non-vegetarian iterations, a Thrissur-based patisserie, The Lilly’s, has come up with the concept of a ‘Pastry Sadya’. This is for those with a sweet tooth and then some more. 

In keeping with the sadya template, it retains elements such as the ubiquitous palada and pazham payasam, the pappadam, banana chips and sharkara peratti (jaggery coated banana chips). But the twist is the strawberry-dates pickle, saffron milk cake, carrot halwa thoran — the piece de resistance and centrepiece — Thai sticky rice, which is served with mampazham (ripe mango) sauce - all served on a banana leaf.

The sweet sadya aside, the menu boasts Onam Dream Cakes such as palada payasam cake, naranga mittayi tiramisu, and thenga mittayi cheesecake. 

Chef Bijosh, sous chef, says that despite the intention to do something different for Onam, “I wanted to highlight the flavours of Kerala. These items are the result of several months of research.” The tangy-tartness of the strawberry is a nod to puli inji, a sweet-sour ginger-tamarind pickle, served as part of the sadya; saffron milk cake to Kalan, and carrot halwa to thoran.“ The pastry sadya is available a la carte and not as takeaway, as it is unwieldy to pack and would lose its charm.”  

Although he did consider the visual element for the pastry sadya, for some other desserts, he has used familiar flavours such as of coconut, jaggery, cardamom, and even buttermilk. “For example, we use jaggery sauce for The Lilly’s wattalappam cake, our take on the Sri Lankan dessert. The coconut-cardamom combination for the macaron gives it that flavour twist!” 

The plum cake brownie is another ‘innovation’ he is proud of, “It is the stuff of nostalgia for the Malayali, and everyone likes brownies. We used the plum cake fruits and raisins in the brownie mix instead of walnuts and we used chocolate. The end result? Brownie meets plum cake, in a nice way!” 

It is not all sweet; the buttermilk sorbet is Bijosh’s take on the Malayalis’ favourite summer drink — sambharam (buttermilk) — with the sting of ginger and chillies.