There are many Indian towns or cities whose most famous landmark is not a building. Nor a street. Or a monument. But a sweet. In some cases the sweet is more well-known than the place. And the mithai also tells a story about local flavours, festivals and traditions.
This town of 690,000 in the deep South is globally known for its legendary Tirunelveli Halwa, whose proper name is Iruttu Kadai Halwa. A rich wheat-based sweet, it's made with pure ghee, sugar and water from the nearby Thamirabarani river of Tamil Nadu, believed to enhance its unique flavour. Read more about the halwa here.
The iconic sweet was invented in the royal kitchens of the Mysore Palace during the reign of Krishna Raja Wadiyar IV in 1935, thereafter making Mysore synonymous with this delicacy. History books tell us that the dessert was created by palace chef Kakasura Madappa when he was asked to prepare a unique sweet for the king and he used just besan (gram flour), ghee & sugar to conjure up this wonder.
Nizami heritage has gifted Hyderabad its most the divine dish -- Qubani Ka Meetha. It is cooked up from dried apricots stewed in sugar syrup until tender and served with malai or custard.
The coastal Andhra city of Kakinada produces a flaky, layered sweet that has made the port town renowned across South India. Fashioned from refined flour, sugar syrup, ghee, Kaja is deep-fried and then lightly dunked into sugar syrup to ensure it is crisp on the exterior and juicy when you taste it.
The birthplace of Lord Krishna is inseparably linked with the Mathura Peda, a classical sweet revered across India that's made with just a few ingredients like mawa (milk solids), sugar, and cardamom.
If you visit Kolkata and you have just time for one touristy activity, then head out to have the city's world-famous Rosogollas. Spongy, syrup-soaked balls of chhena, preferably sweetened with nolen gur (date jaggery), there's nothing like it elsewhere on the planet. Read more about Bengali sweets here.
The Taj Mahal is given a run for its money by Agra's excellent Petha, that also lends the city much fame. Concocted from ash gourd, it's a translucent but packed with sweet juice that rushes out in a gush when you bite into it.
The disc-shaped, honeycomb-textured sweet, which is doused in sugar syrup and topped with rabri, dry fruits, vark -- and delivers one to the doorway to heaven after the first bite -- is Rajasthan's signature sweet. Jaipur, Jodhpur and other smaller towns make their own special versions.