Tag: sweets

06/11/15 10:30am

Lovely Ladoo at Flushing’s Ganesh Temple

One of Lord Ganesh’s favorite snacks.

The canteen located in the basement of the Šri Mahã Vallabha Ganapati Devasthãnam, more commonly known as the Ganesh Temple, is one of my favorite non-Chinese haunts in Flushing. I’m especially fond of turning tour groups on to the 2-foot long paper dosa. In addition to many varieties of the rice and lentil crepes there is an abbreviated selection of snacks and sweets. The other day I tried a ladoo. Slightly smaller than a handball the golden hued treat is made from chickpea flour, and is the elephant-headed god’s favorite mithai. (more…)

Flushing, Ganesh, Indian, ladoo, mithai, sweets, temples

The Sweet Spot

10/17/14 11:01am

Queens Bazaar Has the Loveliest Lebanese Lokum Ever

The most delightful Middle Eastern sweetmeats in Rego Park, Queens.

“That’s Turkish delight,” the gentleman behind the counter at Queens Bazaar Foods told me and my tour group as I held up a box filled with amber colored disks and chunks rolled in pistachio. “Lokum, apricot and pistachio,” he said by way of further explanation.

It was my first time hearing the word lokum. I’d ever seen the confection looking quite like this. I am more accustomed to the gelatinous cubes dusted in white powder. Lebanese lokum is a world apart from those. It puts the delight in Turkish delight. When we left the shop my tour guests and I noshed on a few bites. Everyone agreed the chewy morsels flavored with pistachio, apricot, and rosewater were amazing. We only ate a little bit as we’d just taken down a gigantic xachapuri at Marani. I stashed the rest away, with the plan of writing about the best Lebanese sweets in Rego Park. (more…)

Lebanese, lokum, markets, Queens Bazaar Food, Rego Park, sweets, Turkish delight

Jackson Heights

11/01/13 3:10pm

Desify: Mountains of Diwali Sweets This Weekend

A small army of mithai awaits hungry Diwali revelers at Maharajah Sweets.

If you have never experienced the pre-Diwali rush in New York’s South Asian sweets shops, you have two more days to partake of mountains of sugary, nutty, dairy-rich mithai (sweets, in Hindi).

In North India, Diwali (aka, the Hindu “festival of lights”) is a celebration of the triumph of good over evil in the Ramayan, a famous Hindu epic. Families gather to share special meals, clay lamps (diyas in Hindi) and firecrackers are ablaze everywhere, and countless boxes of sweets are exchanged. (more…)

Desify, Diwali, India, Maharajah Sweets, South Asia, sweets

Queens Eats

10/07/13 10:03am

Desify: Delving into Dhokla at Floral Park’s Real Usha