15 September 2007
Jalebis
I’ve just discovered to my delight that one of the local Middle Eastern shops - Spiceland - sells jalebis. Jalebis, for those who have never heard of them, are the unhealthiest food in the whole world; they’re essentially deep-fried sugar. Variants on them are called jangiri and emarti. I understand they’re North Indian originally, but have spread by now to Bangladesh and Pakistan as well - and now Ireland.
I had them for the first time in India, from a street stall in a village somewhere south of the line between Delhi and Varanasi. They were wrapped in a banana leaf (I think) and literally fresh out of the oil. I had read about them before, because they’re pretty much the quintessential Indian street sweet. They’re absolutely fantastic, and the discovery that a local shop sells them is very very pleasing. They come in once a month, the shop guy says, and he was implying that if many were bought, he’d get more.
It’s immensely pleasing to find things like that, things you know are authentic, from what’s effectively the far side of the world, just down the street. Now I could just identify a few more of vegetables in that shop, I’d be doing really well…