Bengalis love their mishti as much as they love their "adda" and when the two go together, as they effortlessly seem to all the time, all’s right with the world!  Visiting relatives for the first time?  Or the millionth time?  Someone in the hospital?  A wedding lunch?  A birthday?  Marriage anniversary?  Exam fever?  Condolence visit? Cricket fever in Eden Gardens?   Stop near your house or anywhere you happen to be and buy dry sandesh-es packed in cardboard boxes, or syrupy sweets in earthenware pots called khuris(No heathen plastic packets here yet.)  And hover in front of the glass counters with the amriti, jilebi, khirer chop, kheer kadamba,  pantua, rasamalai, chanar jilebi, malai chop, rasa-amriti, langcha, chum chum, ladykini, sitabhog, sarbhaja, sarpuria, mihidana, dorbesh, malpua and the many other nameless varieties of sweets going by the generic name of sandesh.   And pick up 250 grams of mishti doi while you’re at it.

If you are a local, you also know that between 4 and 5 in the afternoon, many of these sweetshops fry delicious little savouries singharas (little samosas, filled with cauliflower during the winter months), kachuris, and dal puris with alu dum.  Just in time for the afternoon cup of tea.  But don’t wait.  Within the hour, they are all gone.  And you have to wait a full 24 hours to get them again!

Contributing to the gastronomic landscape of Kolkata have been some of the legendary names in sweet-making: Bhim Nag, Ganguram, K.C. Das, Sen Mohashoy and Nabin Chandra Das the inventor of the inimitable rasagolla.  But even purists would admit that the competition has caught up both in innovation and in quality.  If you happen to be in the neighbourhood, you could visit Kalika Mistanna Bhandar or Bagbazar sweets in Shyambazar (North Kolkata), or Deshbandhu Mistanna Bhander in Burrabazar, but just about any medium-sized establishment in the city will provide sweet satisfaction.

Click here for a Photo Feature on sweets of Kolkata

By: Canyon Research