>From today's New York Times: November 2, 2005 Festival of Lights, Parade of Sweets By JULIA MOSKIN
NEW YORKERS have learned to tread fearlessly in the world of real Indian food. They know pakoras from samosas and dabble in idlis and utthappams. But a confusing cloud often looms over the end of those meals: the sweet, colorful, mysteriously milky world of Indian desserts.... Indian sweets, called mithai, are a thing apart, served alone or with a cup of chai for an afternoon or late-night snack that is both stimulating and soothing. Although they are made from simple ingredients, like butter, milk, nuts and spices, they take wild forms and colors, like pumpkin-orange jalebi filled with sugar syrup and hot-pink Twinkie-shaped chumchums, a specialty of West Bengal, the capital of Indian confectionery. "Mithai are like physical therapy for Indians," says Arun Sinha, owner of Foods of India on Lexington Avenue. "You come home after work, you have one small piece, you eat it slowly and you become completely relaxed. And when you ask for another piece, your wife must say, No!" The festive piles of pink, green, yellow, orange and white sweets, some shimmering with silver leaf, others snowy with shreds of coconut or crunchy with nuggets of pistachio, are integral to many religious celebrations and social rituals in South Asia. This week...Hindus observe the festival of lights, Diwali, or Deepavali, which ushers in the new year; Muslims finish the holy month of Ramadan with Id al-Fitr, which signals the end of the monthlong daytime fast and a return to the sweetness of daily life. The two holidays, Hindus and Muslims here say, are utterly soaked in sugar. "You cannot go to anyone's house at this time of year without a quarter-pound of something sweet," says Padma Dasgupta, a writer in Jericho, N.Y.... Mithai are integral to many ceremonial occasions - the first gift of an Indian bride to the family of her betrothed is often 50 pounds of top-quality mithai - but none more so than Diwali, which is observed by sending elaborate gift boxes of sweets, dried fruit and nuts to family and friends. (Crowds of Diwali shoppers were targets of terrorist bombs that killed about 60 people in New Delhi on Saturday, a reminder of the region's dangerous divisions, even at a time of religious unity in a sweet ritual.)... But mithai also have a real spiritual significance for Hindus. Sweetmaking has been an honored culinary specialty in India since the time of the ancient Vedic texts, about 1000 B.C.; the word sugar is most likely descended from the Sanskrit sarkar. And the cult of dairy goes even further back. "Ghee and milk are adored in India, almost worshiped," Mr. Sukhadia said. "The cow is everyone's mother." (Thus, most Hindus do not eat beef.) Lord Krishna, the most beloved of the creator-gods worshiped by Hindus, is often depicted as a fun-loving boy, always dipping his fingers into the butter churn. In Indian culture his attraction to milkmaids is a frequent theme, and in sacred images he is almost always accompanied by a bull. The holiday of Diwali, though, is dedicated to Lord Ganesha and his sister Lakshmi. Ganesha is the god with an elephant's head who presides over all kinds of new enterprises; he is often shown with a plate of his favorite mithai, boondi laddoos: round, crunchy sweets flavored with cardamom that resemble Rice Krispies treats. Boondi laddoos are offered to Ganesha as prasadam, or offering, during Diwali. Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth and good fortune, is best propitiated with the most brightly colored mithai, preferably shining with shards of edible silver or gold, called vark. During Diwali, everyone is expected to give mithai to the poor, and sweetmakers make once-a-year treats like ghughra: turnovers filled with mawa (rather like sweet ricotta), coconut and nuts, and deep- fried in ghee. In the United States, ghee made from butter is often called desi ghee to distinguish it from vegetable-based substitutes; the word desi, which means something close to "countryman," always evokes a strong, authentic connection to the homeland for the Indian diaspora.... Read more at: http://tinyurl.com/8fzkk Mail order sweets on the Web: Bengali Sweet House http://www.bengalisweet.com/ Sukhadia's http://www.sukhadia.com/index_main.asp?sid=214713392 ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. Make Yahoo! your home page http://us.click.yahoo.com/dpRU5A/wUILAA/yQLSAA/JjtolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
