Food Menu Selection for your Big Fat Indian Wedding

Food, along with music, dance and merriment plays a huge role in the great Indian wedding. It can be a grueling task picking and choosing the food that you wish to serve at your wedding reception. And, before it all comes the big decision of which caterer to choose. Read on to get a clearer idea of how to go about this food dilemma. After all, the big fat Indian wedding is incomplete without a grand gastronomical feast!

Indian Wedding Food Menu

Selecting a Caterer

Firstly, you need to figure out if the location where your wedding reception is being held permits an outside caterer to take care of the wedding’s food. Most 5-star hotels for instance, only allow the wedding catering to be done by an in-house caterer. If so, you will have to sit down with the hotel’s caterer and discuss various food options and menus.

Choice of Appetizers

Finger foods are a great option for starters. Not only are they freshly prepared and served to the wedding guests as soon as they are ready, but they are also suitable for formal and casual weddings alike. When discussing the starter menu with your caterer, make sure you find out how they are priced. Will they be charged on the basis of consumption? (This is a good idea, since you cannot really judge in advance how many starters each of your guests will consume,) or do you plan to stick with a pre-counted number of starters per head?  Kebabs are a good idea, and you can even have a good mix of both vegetarian and non-vegetarian options. A plate of cheese and crackers on each table is a great idea to keep your guests satisfied while they take a break from the starters that keep coming around.

The Main Course

Do you plan to have a buffet service at your wedding, or will it be a table service with a set meal for everyone. The former option is a great idea, since you get to select a good combination of dishes that will be offered at your wedding. Another extremely important question: will it be a 100% vegetarian menu or a mix of vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes. If you plan to have a set meal with table service, you will be to know just exactly how many vegetarians plan to attend your wedding. This can get a bit confusing, unless of course your wedding is an all-vegetarian wedding. As we mentioned earlier, a buffet-style menu is a great idea. You can choose to have 2 separate buffet tables, one for the vegetarian dishes and the other for non-vegetarian.  Most caterers also offer a soup in their menus, so have a look at that too. Salads of different kinds add a good balance to the food served in a buffet-style setting.

Rice, bread, and Indian rotis are all a must. Then come the accompaniments like different gravies. Ask your caterer for the different menus that he/she offers. If you want to stick to Indian you can do so. Some like to throw in a bit of different cuisines like Chinese, Italian, Thai etc. We think it’s a good idea to go with one or at the most two different kinds of cuisines. Chinese and Thai food would go well for instance. And, you can get really creative in this case with sushi, sashimi and the likes. However, something like Thai and Indian food; they just don’t go together. It’s also a good idea to have at least 1 dry dish in your main menu such as a continental-style battered fish, which adds a crunchy, but tasty element to the meal as a whole. Surprisingly, this goes really well with an Indian menu!

Also, you can opt for a platter of cold cuts like turkey, proscuito ham, chorizo and salami that are not only delicious but also make for a good presentable dish, if served well on the buffet table.

Just Desserts

In this area too, you can get wildly creative. A small section of the buffet table can be dedicated to desserts if you like. Go crazy with desserts like tiramisu, cheesecakes and fresh fruit mousses. You can even opt for a platter of mini desserts, so that you can incorporate all the favorites such as mini tarts, eclairs and pastries. If you don’t wish to have a dedicated dessert counter, then a set dessert can also be a good option.

It’s not a very difficult to make a decision with regards to the food menu at your wedding. It just requires a good amount of thought, and the assistance of a good wedding planner. After all, no one knows your guests better than you and your spouse to be.