Upon turning into the street and looking around, one wonders why the people here have not gotten fat. In Liaquatabad, the street nicknamed ‘Mithai Gali’ by locals is full of pakwan (commercial kitchen) shops busy preparing sweets by the gazillions.
They produce so many sweetmeats or mithai that they sell at wholesale rates — about one-fourth of the rates of a regular sweetmeat shop. At Azeem Sweets and Rabri House, the per-kilogramme rate of gulab jamun is Rs350. Chumchum, the next best seller, is Rs450. Barfi, besan key ladoo and motichoor key ladoo are Rs550, and kalakand is Rs650. In fact, many shops selling expensive mithai buy from these places.
The sweetmeat sellers here say that they can keep their prices low as they use powder milk in the preparation of their mithai instead of fresh milk.
It is fun to watch the mithai being produced in huge quantities at these shops. They have machines to make small balls from the different mithai batter. For gulab jamun, they have three sizes. Falsa (berry) size is the smallest, party size is medium, big size is well, big. There is also another size and shape for gulab jamuns, such as a ‘lamba’ size. These are the bigger oblong-shaped gulab jamuns.
Depending on their size, it may take hours to deep fry the gulab jamuns. The smaller ones take less time, of course. But all are fried in the biggest of woks that one has ever seen. They require buckets full of oil for the frying.
While the gulab jamuns are being fried, the kitchen staff prepares the sweet syrup to soak the fried gulab jamun in after frying. Sacks after sacks of sugar are poured into boiling water to prepare the syrup on a separate stove.
After frying, the gulab jamuns turn golden brown from their previous off-white colour. That’s when they are taken out of the wok and transferred to the tanks of already prepared syrup to absorb the sweetness for a couple of hours.
The heat in the kitchens makes the work challenging, but the men who prepare sweetmeats seem used to it as they produce sweetmeats by the tons and make very good sales, despite selling at wholesale rates.
The biggest sellers at these shops are gulab jamun. You can get some 45 small, falsa-size gulab jamuns in one kilogram and 20 to 25 bigger ones in the same weight. The kitchens also sell sweet rice or zarda on order for wedding ceremonies or other occasions.
There is extra rush at Mithai Gali during special occasions such as Eidul Fitr, Eidul Azha and 12 Rabiul Awwal when everything sells like hot cakes.
Originally published in Dawn, April 3rd, 2025
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