Mithai

Winter in Kolkata is just setting in. It is November 2021. The main attraction in Bengali sweets is the advent of the Nolen and Patali Gur - the jaggery that is prepared after thickening the sap extracted overnight from the date palm (Khajur) tree. In the next 4 months some serious sweetmakers will use this special jaggery in most sweets made from chhana (cottage cheese). This jaggery is not meant for making sweets sweeter - it gives a unique flavour to sweets which you will not get after March 2022. And Mithai (Gariahat) is one such gur-serious sweet maker. Try their soft (norom pak) and hard (kora pak) varieties - the shankh sandesh (conch shaped), the flower shaped circular one, the kachagolla (cottage cheese cooked with this jaggery and hand shaped into a spherical shape), the talshash sandesh etc. This store has many varieties of sweets cooked with gur - so you can choose. The price used to be Rs 16 a piece a month back - but they have raised it marginally to Rs 18 a piece. Hope it stays there. Being seasonal, this price for gur items still seems reasonable. Other than gur, their Dorbesh (a light fried sweet) and Singara (Samosa, a snack item) are very good. Unfortunately due to the pandemic, they are the only shop which doesn't allow eating inside. So ask them before ordering if you have plans to sample and eat varieties of their sweets.