More than ladoos and jalebis

There is an authentic variety of desi sweets for Diwali this time

October 19, 2014 06:55 pm | Updated May 23, 2016 07:32 pm IST

Kochi, Kerala, 17/10/2014: Diwali Sweets kept for sale at North Indian Shiv Temple in the city on Thursday. Photo:Thulasi Kakkat

Kochi, Kerala, 17/10/2014: Diwali Sweets kept for sale at North Indian Shiv Temple in the city on Thursday. Photo:Thulasi Kakkat

In 1944 Trikamji Joshi from Porbander in Gujarat made his way to Cochin and set up a sweet shop,( renamed Annapurna in the 80s), in Mattancherry. This in all probability is the city’s first North Indian mithai shop. Ten years later Shantilal Sakarchand who came from Kutch Mandvi wrote to his friend Chamanlal, back in the village, urging him to come across and set up a sweet shop, as there was “prospect”. Both these outlets Annapurna and Shantilal Mithaiwala in Mattancherry continue to do brisk business more than half a century later. It was in the early 60s that Brij Mohan Gupta from Bulandshahar in UP began selling ladoos and mirchi bhaji on a dray opposite Sea Lord Hotel on Marine Drive. “My father, as a 13-year-old, used to roll out 50 ladoos with my grandfather,” says Gijendra Gupta, who runs his third generation shop in St. Benedict’s Road, near North Railway Station. These three immigrant families and their ventures gave Kochi its first taste of desi mithai , beginning with ladoos and jalebis. Since then the taste and familiarity of sweets, made with the likes of pure ghee, fresh cow’s milk, with kesar (saffron), kewra (pandanus) and silver wark has come a long way. City folk have developed a taste for such sweets and Diwali is the festival which offers them the best.

This year, in a maiden initiative, a group of four friends – Deepak Vanjani, Sunil Kedia, Pavan Tolasaria and Prabhat Goenka - from the North Indian Association, has invited a team of 10 halwais or mithai makers from Kolkata to come and prepare an authentic variety of sweets and namkeen (savouries). The spread they offer, beside the regular variety in ladoos and pedas, are rare sweets like gond ladoo, maya parwal, long latta, chanderlekha, dilkushar chakki and the likes. The savoury menu has the famed Agra dal mot and masala mathri besides other choices. “Our aim is to provide good quality and a variety of sweets for Diwali,” say the four who are third generation Kochiites and are into different businesses in the city.

Sudhir Ram, the sweet maker from Deogarh, West Bengal, says his team is making sweets daily from 600-700 kgs of raw materials that consists of milk, khoya , sugar, mawa , dry fruits and such.

“Looking at the number of chaat outlets in every nook and corner of the city, it is clear that Malayalis have come to relish the taste of North Indian cuisine. It is the same for sweets too,” says Pavan. The friends have seen a steady increase in popularity of mithai . “Earlier it was only ladoos and jalebis but now people are familiar with other sweets too.” They attribute this to the arrival of the Haldiram brand.

Rajesh Purohit from Bikaner runs a catering business and has ventured into opening an eatery. He takes orders for North Indian sweets. Rajesh says that the mithai business has dipped because everything has become expensive. “There is competition and people have become conscious about sugary foods. Mithai consumption is less and the demand is for sugar- free sweets.” In his 12 years of dishing out North Indian cuisine Rajesh says that the ladoo remains a perennial favourite.

Milan Bhai of Annapurna has morphed his sweet menu according to the times. He has ventured into what he calls, ‘new generation sweets’. The range he offers has anjeer -dry fruit burfi , cranberry dry fruit burfi , cashew lychee jelly sweet and cashew rotla . He finds that the last three years have seen an increase in these “high-end sweets”. “Of course the mithai-namkeen (sweet-savoury) combination is the most popular.”

Narendra bhai of Shantilal says with pride that 60 per cent of his business is supported by local Malayalis. “They have got used to the taste of our sweets and relish ladoo, jalebis, papdi, kachoris and ghatiya .” He used to earlier source his raw materials from Mumbai and Tamil Nadu - ration of chickpea flour, thickened milk and even the typical spices.

Gijendra Gupta of Gupta Sweets was into wholesale sweet making and remembers making 10,000 jalebis daily in 2004. He has now ventured into retail. Gijendra speaks emotionally about the time when his father, Dev Prakash and his grandfather were making ladoos and jalebis themselves and bringing in a “sweet revolution” in the city and the State.

There was a time we had 50 karigars making sweets. My ancestors have a hand in the history of sweets in the State” says Gijendra, adding that Bengali sweets have yet to make a mark in the city’s palate.

Sri Krishna Sweets, Bimbis, Swastik, Vinayaka Sweets, familiar, popular local names have been offering a wide range down the years. Together with the North Indian mithai makers they give the city its sweet times.

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