Chatkazz Sweets Namkeen - Harris Park

I decide to check out the Harris Park Food Taste Tour. The Taste Food Tours is a not-for-profit organisation that is designed to promote diversity and cultural harmony. After a cracker of a start with some Indian street food, it's now time to experience some desserts. Next stop is Chatkaatz Sweets in Harris Park.

Just a few doors down from their popular Chatkazz restaurant, turning out vegetarian street food, this restaurant has opened up Chatkazz Sweets Namkeen.Indian stores such as this one offer up a range of light food items, usually consumed with tea.On the sweet side you’ll find counters full of orderly rows of Indian sweets, ranging from colourful kaju (cashew) rolls to gulab jamuns (deep fried milk solids balls in sugar syrup) to that delicious combination of carrots, sugar, milk, dried fruits and ghee known as gajar ka halwa. The word namkeen refers to them selling savoury snacks, like crisp, noodle-like bhujia made from besan flour and spices, which we'd commonly have as bar snacks with alcohol. Bright orange jelabi (a deep-fried pretzel-shaped treat soaked in sugar syrup) take me back to visiting Malaysia as a child, and biting into these tubular delights, which explode in your mouth with fragrant sugar syrup. Nor have I seen this many flavours of barfi since I was...