The Sweet Tooth

"THE SWEET TOOTH"
My earliest memory of delicious sweets is of a very dry, light yellow milk-khoya (mawa) mithai laced with real kesar (saffron) strands and with granules of misri
embeded in it. Father would bring it from ( the then) Benaras on his way back from a tour of eastern India. 

During the same period of childhood I discovered those yummy. soft moist sweets from, then newly opened, Chaudhary Sweet House of Lucknow My favourite was the tricolour barfi - a block of Green pishta- khoya, yellow saffron-khoya, and white almond khoya all in one. It was, in a way, the celebration of Independant India! It had great aroma and taste !

L.M.B Rasmalai (Lakshmi Mistha Bhandar)of Jaipur was famous in the latter part of  the 20th century and justifiably so. An evening in LMB and a visit to Raj Mandir Theatre was in every tourist's must-do list. But the most delicious rasmalai that I remember eating was the one I ate  at a small restaurant in Chetak circle in Udaipur ! It had a unique taste and flavour. The informal ambience of the restaurant added to the enjoyment.

Up north, there was that sumptuous pure khoya mithai with a heavenly
flavour and taste - the Shingoree of Almora in the Himalayas. Wrapped into a conical shape, in a maloo-ka-patta (fresh tender leaf of Himalayan oak), it beat all other sweets when you were real hungry and wanted genuine health-food with substance.

Doctors have lately taken fun out of eating - both  for young and old - with constant focus on HDL LDL , blood sugar and triglycerates! you get bogged down checking transfats and counting calories! And in the worst case you unwittingly get to eat a mix of urea, saccharin, inedible oil and distemper masqerading as Khoya !

Yes, the days of great Indian sweets seem to be over. For now atleast !

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