Jaipur Sweets

Shop 3 / 50 Bourke Street, Melbourne
Phone 03 9663 3884

Those in the CBD with a hankering for Indian sweets can now satisfy their cravings at Jaipur Sweets.  The Jaipur brand seems to be ever expanding – just up the road is the Jaipur Curry Bar, over in Clayton you can find the Jaipur Curry Club and then there is Jaipur Sweets & Curry Cafe in Dandenong.

I don’t think the sweets are made on the premises (perhaps in Dandenong?), but trays and trays of deep fried pastries, condensed milk treats, nutty slices and cakey dumplings are all on offer.  I must plead ignorance to the delights of indian sweethings, athough an enlightening article by Matt Preston offers some interesting insight.

I jumped in head first, and chose a few items to sample.  To the left was the pista burfi ($2), a pale green square of solidified condensed milk, sugar and ground pistachios. A couple of whole pistchios remained as evidence of the ingredients, and a scrape of varak (silver leaf) added to the sparkle.  It had the consistency of fudge, although was a little granule-ly due to the nuts and sugar. It was also rather sweet – one of those squares easily enough for two.

The two balls in the middle are gulab jamun ($1.50), which are kind of like cakey donut holes. They are soaked in a sugar syrup of rosewater and cardamon, and OMfG, are disgustingly good.

Lastly was the besan ladoo ($1.50), a chickpea flour and sugar ball that tasted disturbingly of curry. Apparently it is the favoured sweet of Lord Ganesh, but I didn’t find it that palatable.  Give me one of those gulab jamuns any day!

I think I must slowly work my way through that sweets cabinet to round out my appreciation of the sweeter side of Indian cuisine.