Paoli launches Madly Mishti

Sweet. It���������������������������s perhaps the most commonly used adjective.
A term that is integral to defining Bengal���������������������������s culture, language and not to mention, Bangali���������������������������s ���������������������������sweet��������������������������� fascination for all things mishti.
Totally consumed by its mad addiction for sweetness, Kolkata���������������������������s sweet tooth is a thing to reckon with.Be it in sickness or in health, in good times or in bad, mishti makes the Bengali world go round. It���������������������������s inevitable to find sweet freaks queueing up before sweet shops at all odd hours. Not to mention the seriously-sweet arguments about the best rosogolla, or the best langcha in town.
Topographical distance too is a small barrier to overcome for the loyalists to reach their fave joints. Now is your chance to root for the very best. Madly Mishti is certainly a befitting term to define this saccharine salivation.
In tune with Bangalir baro mashe tero parbon, the mishti industry thrived like never before. What���������������������������s more, Bengal���������������������������s sweet journey is also deeply rooted in history. It was in the19th century Bengal Renaissance, that a spurt of sweetmeat shops across Kolkata, took the Bengali taste by rage.
The syrupy winds only blew stronger with Phulia confectioner, Haradhan Maira���������������������������s contribution, who is believed to have come up with the rosogolla during the Bengal Renaissance. Soft and mushy, oozing in a rich sweetness much like the first flutter of the heart, these white cottage cheese balls in sugar syrup, took the sweetmeat industry by storm. Working on the snow white concoctions even further, Nabinchandra Roy of Bagbazar, Kolkata, was the first to introduce sponge rosogolla in 1868.
To keep the rosogolla company, there was the sandesh ��������������������������� made from finely-ground fresh cottage cheese ��������������������������� in a few hundred varieties. From kanchagolla to the more-complicated abar khabo, jolbhora or indrani and the korapak variant, which blends rice flour with paneer to form shell-like dough, sandesh satiates the taste buds craving for dry sweetness.
With literateurs all over, vouching for the Bangali rosobodh, rosher mishti, done in bhaja style, seemed the only answer to Bengal���������������������������s sweet desire. The sweet lovers were spoilt for choice with pantua, langcha, ledikeni (curiously, the latter was created in honour of Countess Charlotte Canning, wife of the Governor General to India, Charles Canning), chomchom, malpoa, chhanar jilipi, kalo jam, shor bhaja, raj bhog and kamala bhog.
The topping on this sweet cake came with mishti doi, sweetened with charred sugar. This has now become synonymous with Bengal as much as the Howrah Bridge and the Victoria Memorial.
Once the sweet net was cast, different regions of Bengal came to be identified with a particular mishti. So, Krishnanagore became famous for sarbhaja and sarpuriya while Burdwan won accolades for its sitabhog and mihidana. Midnapore stole the show for babarshah and Birbhum���������������������������s morabba found many a taker outside the district���������������������������s periphery.
And in keeping with the rising demand, the traditional has made way for the experimental. Now there���������������������������s the carrot rosogolla, flavoured doi, ice-cream sandesh, to name a few.
Feeding on this pulse of mishti freaks, CT launches Madly Mishti, a celebration of the city���������������������������s obsession for mishti. No moving out of your house, but a simple expression of your loyalty towards your favourites through SMSes ��������������������������� for starters, that���������������������������s how you participate from Tuesday onwards.
The SMS codes will be announced in Tuesday���������������������������s CT edition. For the next two weeks, readers will be invited to vote for four categories ��������������������������� Rosogolla, Doi, Sandesh and Rosher Mishti. The names of their favourite shops ��������������������������� from the parar dokan to the best brands in the business ��������������������������� can be sent via SMSes. A list of five most-voted outlets in each category will be announced next week. Based on readers��������������������������� votes and celeb jury decisions, CT will then decide on the four winners.
So, get ready to vote for the mishti you are truly mad about. Sweet dreams, after all, are only made of these!
calcutta.times@timesgroup.com