Jalebi
Gujaratis eat fafda and jalebi all year round but today on Dashera they consume them with unseemly gusto; almost as if they are eating them for the first time.
Before I say a couple of things about this brilliant snack let me explain what fafda and jalebi are for my legion of non-Indian readers. That would be about three people.
I quote myself from an eternally “to be published” biography of my hometown of Ahmedabad because it makes some reference to this very Gujarati of snacks.
The heavy breakfast ensured that the conversations never really took off and soared. Men burped and hiccupped alternately because of the ajmo (carom seeds) in the fafda (long, coarse strips made of leavened gram flour and deep fried) and extra hot fried chilies. Women plied those men with cups of tea disregarding the unseemly sounds emanating from them.
Everything is fried in Ahmedabad. Sometime I suspect that even oil is fried. When in doubt while cooking, fry it. The deeper it is, the better it tastes. Carcinogens have to be well done. It is impossible to go wrong with frying anything with a dash of salt. Gram flour has to be the culinary mascot of Ahmedabad. There is nothing you cannot do with gram flour, salt and oil.
In between, men would bite into yellow jalebis, filled with and dipped in pure sugar syrup. They would lick their sticky fingers and wipe their hands with the newspaper in which the fafda was packed. It would be helpfully pointed out to you that the traces of baking soda and salt trapped in the packing were efficient at cleaning sticky, oily hands.
The reason why the fafda-jalebi-chilies works so well is because between the three they cover three elemental tastes—salty, sugary and hot. What’s not to like in that? Typically, there is also a fourth piece to this snack. It is shredded raw papayas marinated and—you guessed it right—fried.
If you are a health-freak, this is not the combo for you. If you have acid reflux, this is most certainly not the snack for you unless you are willing to suffer a few hours of agony for a few minutes of divine tastes and flavors.
On Dashera, which is the tenth day after nine nights of revelries of dance and music known as Navratri in Gujarat, fafda-jalebi are practically mandatory. You can be excommunicated if you do not eat the snack. I exaggerate, of course, but you get the drift.
Here in Chicago area we do get fafda-jalebi that compare rather favorably with what one gets in Gujarat but I plan to skip it because I have an acid factory inside my stomach. Acid jumps even at the mention of fafda-jalebi. I will admire it from a distance.