Home » Food and Drink »  Festival Cusine »  Mitha Diwali It is a universally acknowledged fact that the average Indian has a more-than-average sweet tooth!

Of Mithais

It is that time of the year again. Diwali the festival of lights is here. All of India is lit up in the glow of diyas as festivities start. Diwali, stretching over 5 days, is as much about celebrating the victory of good over evil as it is about gorging on sweetmeats! Indeed, is any Indian festival complete without a panoply of traditional sweets and savouries? I have fond memories of wolfing down hot, sticky and syrupy, golden jalebis (courtesy my paternal Punjabi grandmother) and crunchy, buttery chirotis (courtesy my maternal Kannadiga grandmother). Oh, and how can I forget the number of chakkulis (a Southern savoury) that have had a short life span thanks to my appetite? Or those pedas and ladoos and barfis with their (ahem!) abbreviated life span

The Indian Sweet Tooth

The Indian sweet tooth is a very peculiar one. It is also a potent one. The huge array of Indian confections and desserts made during the Diwali season is mostly milk based and often too sweet for the non-Indian palate. We, however, seem to have no problem dealing with these saccharine drenched, calorie busting delights. Here is how you can get round to sampling all the best that Indian confectioners have to offer:

• From the East, you can try sandesh, rasmalai, gulab-jamuns and rosogollas
• From the North, you can try jalebis and the milk based barfis. Tickle your palette with kheer (the Indian rice pudding), shahi tukda (an exotic variation on bread pudding), phirni (powdered rice pudding served in earthenware bowls), and kulfi (the Indian equivalent of ice cream).
• From the South, try out Mysore Pak (a channa dal based, ghee drenched delight). and payasam (a sweet porridge).
• From the West, dip into shrikand (made from sweetened dahi).

Also, try various halvas made from ingredients as diverse as semolina, dals, eggs, carrots and even wholemeal flour.

Home Made no more

Rising costs and the constraints of time have led to an inevitable decline in preparing the traditional Diwali sweets at home. Indeed, increasingly, we turn to commercial establishments to meet the demands of our voracious sweet tooth. Well, as long as I can get my gulab jamun and eat it too, Iam happy. Alas, I am not sure my grandmothers slaving over their kadais stirring their kheers and payasams would approve