Konchem Theepi

Poets go lyrical over it, calling it as wholesome as a buxom belle...Connoisseurs of cuisine certified it as a delicacy par excellence...The general public-who do not have facility of a florid speech, just drool over it....Bandar laddu is it"s name ..renowned all over Andhra Pradesh and by the way, even across all over India,since,which place is left uninhabited by telugu speaking people?...Synonymous with Bandar, the town, it makes you wonder which one compliments which one?..The town or the laddu?..

Now....you may ask why all this hullabaloo for a laddu?...After all a laddu is a common enough sweet across the lenghth and breadth of India...yes...In north we have besan laddus, in south boondi laddu and some other varieties...An authentic bandar laddu is called a thokkudu laddu----means, the pounded laddu---made with jaggery,which differentiates it fron the usual boondi laddu that is made with sugar....Sort of murukulu are made with besan flour, fried deeply, pounded then into some rough powder,mixed with the syrup of jaggery and laddu is made...Some cubes of castor sugar are put in too for those who relish it...mmmmm ...Ethnic,and nourishing,the laddu"s taste is different...may be because it is originally deep fried,...Not too large, not at all oily,nor too sweet,and just right, it pops in, tastes like heaven and goes down the gullet neatly and you automatically reach out for another one and yet another one...

During my childhood,the surroundings Minerva talkies,and the back streets were the hub of the laddu making industry..(may be the term industry is too much here)..Many families were into making them and many sweet shops existed there and the area was simply called as mithai kotlu..Whenever we visited Bandar.(later as dad went on job), Grandfather immediately used to send for the mithais..laddus,halwa and jeedipappu paakam..all the three...Once we arrived at very early hour--morning 5.30 or 6.00 i suppose---and thathayya called for the sweets at that ungodly hour..and they came...In those days the doughty sweet sellers of Bandar did not go for the new fangled ideas like cardboard sweet boxes or polythene bags...The sweets used to come in cone shaped neatly wrapped up vistharakus...As kids we used to make a hole at the end of the cone and calmly frisk the laddus ,when the elders were out of sight..

The thokkudu laddu,..the nalla (black0 halwa, and the jeedipappu pakam are the three delectable sweets that were exclusively made in Bandar..and for which the town is justifiably proud of. Till fifteen years back... they were to be had only in Bandar or at least at very few selective places ..but now things have changed and even people from others places have started making them...or people from Bandar made"em in other places...however you may say..now they can be had at all places...These days you can have Bandar laddu, Kakinada kaaja, Peddapuram palakova, and Thirunelveli halwa right at your own friendly neighborhood mithaiwallah....

The only notable exception being the nalla halwa..Still it can be had only at Bandar...Everyone knows about the halwas that are made usually...red, or green in color, garnished with mewa, these are generally made with wheat ofcource, and sugar..But the black halwa"s speciality is that is made of milk, extracted from ground wheat and jaggery syrup and lots and lots of asli ghee.....The concoction of that syrup is a very technical affair that only the masters know how to make... It is of very gluey texture and connoisseurs lick their lips just thinking of it....Last year, when we were in Thiruchendur on a tour of Tamilnad,our driver,Sundaram stopped his vehicle on the dusty highway, for tea and insisted that we buy a bottle of the what he called as Muscathi halwa...It is a must buy and worth every penny of it"s price, he assured us...We did taste and found it to be very good,..but...No,..sir..Not even a patch on black halwa....True blue blood Bandareans,we loyally stand by our halwa..:)