تحفة النظار في غرايب الامصار وعجايب الاسفار 13.66.1

13.66.1

The procedure is this: a copper table, which they call khawnja, is brought, and on it is placed a copper tray, which they call the ṭālam — with a after the ṭ and a after the l. A beautiful slave-girl wrapped in a silk cloth comes and sets the pots of food before him. She has a large copper ladle, with which she takes one ladleful of rice and puts it on the ṭālam, pours ghee over it, and adds with it bunches of pickled pepper, green ginger, pickled lemons and mangoes. One eats a mouthful and follows it with some of those pickles. When the ladleful she put on the ṭālam is finished, she ladles out another ladleful of rice and empties a cooked chicken into a small bowl, and the rice is eaten with that too. When the second ladleful is finished, she ladles again and empties out another kind of chicken, which is eaten with it. When the kinds of chicken are finished, they bring kinds of fish, with which they also eat the rice. When the kinds of fish are finished, they bring vegetables cooked in ghee and milk dishes, with which they eat the rice. When all that is finished, they bring the kūshān, which is curdled milk, and with it they end their meal; when it is set down, it is known that nothing remains to be eaten after it. Then they drink hot water after it, because cold water harms them in the rainy season.