Exploring the many sweets of Mithila region

The Mithila region of Bihar has a serious sweet tooth. The community enjoys their sugared desserts, from the sesame coated anarsa, to the rice dumpling with jaggery and coconut that is bagiya. Jigyasa Mishra walks us through her favourite desserts from her home.

My earliest food memories are of my Maithil family trying to force-feed me maachh (fish)-bhaat — they failed in that endeavour, and of my baba (grandfather) getting rasgullas for me from Sweet Home (a small sweet shop in Darbhanga, Bihar) every time we visited him. On his payday, Baba would often parcel my favourite rasgullas, by someone travelling to my hometown, Chitrakoot, via train.

Baba is no more, but the Sweet Home remains at the same old location serving the same old taste.

Mithilanchal or Mithila is a cultural region of North Bihar and Eastern Nepal containing Darbhanga and Madhubani districts. The cuisine of Mithilanchal depends on the local produce like rice, fox-nut, mustard, mustard oil, lentils, sun dried and steamed delicacies. The Maithils hold a special place in heart for all things sweet, be it makhana kheer, malpua, thekua, or the evergreen, white and spongy rasgullas.

But the desserts of Bihar are not limited to rasgullas. There is more to the list:

Anarsa

If passing through the busy lanes of Patna early in the morning, follow that sweet smell to the nearest Anarsa shop. Anarsa are small rice-powder balls filled with tiny khoya (mawa) chunks, coated with sesame seeds and deep fried until they crack open. These slight cracks help in diffusing their fresh aroma. Several local shops in Patna and nearby districts make the batches in big kadais.

Tilkut

Tilkut is similar to what is available in other states of the country as gajak. A winter special dessert, it is made of jaggery, lemon syrup, cardamom and white sesame. The mixture is divided into small balls, which are beaten with a pestle-like structure to form a bowl-shaped dessert. This sweet is then packed in paper boxes all across Bihar. Tilkut is served to guests like cookies and doubles as a morning snack and energy bar in Bihari households.

Baadshaahi

Baadshahi still has its umbilical cord attached to Mithilanchal, the Sitamarhi district to be precise. It is also called balushahi, and has a flavour and colour that is completely different from rasgulla. Baadshaahi chhena blends with sooji and sugar before being formed into balls, and dipped into a caramelised sugar syrup. Every day, several kilograms of this dessert are dispatched by the traditional halwais of Sitamarhi to the regular retail sellers in the neighbourhood districts, within Mithilanchal.

Bagiya

The consumption of rice in Bihar is not limited to just being a main course, served with dal and curries. It finds its way into desserts as well. Bagiya is a winter delicacy, and is a rice dumpling filled with jaggery and coconut, which is steamed in boiling water and served hot. A version of bagiya that is boiled in milk is called doodh-bagiya.

Khaja

It is a loud, crispy dessert that announces its presence in a single bite. Khaja holds a GI tag (if it comes from Silao town), and its flaky, lightly sweetened layers of refined flour, fried are briefly soaked in thin chashni. In every Bihari wedding, across castes, khaja is exchanged between the bride’s and groom’s families along with other sweets and fruits.

Ras Kadamb

This sweet seems to have derived its name from kadamb fruit, since it looks like one but with a surprise within. Ras kadam or roshkadam looks like a ball of poppy seeds but take a bite, and you will find khoya and a juicy chhena ball, inside. The beauty of ras kadam is that it a dessert with three layers of distinct ingredients.

Mirjai

A rectangular or square shaped, ghee fried dough blended with sugar and jaggery is found in just traditional shops of Fatuha town in Patna. Mirjai is brown in colour, coated with jaggery, packed usually in cardboard boxes and sent to the nearby towns for small sales but limited largely to Fatuha.

Chamcham

This is yet another chhena dessert but with less chashni and coconut coating over it, chamcham is a semi-liquid dessert. Traditionally, their shapes differ from oval to cylindrical but Darbhanga’s Sweet Home sells it flattened, in the shape of bagiya.

Gur-Chhena

Unlike the sugar-syrup used in rasgulla, this chhena is submerged in jaggery syrup, giving a light brown hue to both. It is preferred by those limiting their refined sugar intake as well as the ones managing diabetes.

Chhena Jalebi

Chhena jalebi sounds like its cousin, the jalebi, but is much darker and thicker and has fewer coils. It is sometimes confused with khoye ki jalebi, but the chhena jalebi is made from fresh curdled milk, kneaded well with refined or rice flour then manually piped and dropped in the oil. The fried jalebi is dipped in the chashni and garnished with dry fruits. It tastes like a combination of gulab-jamun, rasgulla and jalebi.

Jigyasa Mishra is an independent journalist and artist who works across various mediums with a wide lens of human rights, gender, health, environment, culture, food, art and their intersection. She also experiments with art and design, and hosts a monthly supper club in Lucknow.

All images courtesy Jigyasa Mishra.

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