02-07-2025
Delhiwale: Monsoon's sweet spheres
As soon as monsoon checks in, the mainstream world goes gaga over the spicy deep-fried pakodis. (The pakodis of Khandani Pakodiwalla, on the Ring-Road Sarojini Nagar intersection, are yum!). But there's another deep-fried delicacy for the wet season. Anarse ki goli is a goli—sphere—embedded with til seeds, and has the size of a chhota rasgulla. (HT)
Sweet, crispy, but also gooey, it pops up during the monsoon. Its bazar sightings, however, aren't common. That said, you are certain to encounter the speciality during the rainy months of July and August in the city's select mithai shops, especially the largely anonymous shops that lie tucked deep within the bowels of Old Delhi.
Anarse ki goli is a goli—sphere—embedded with til seeds, and has the size of a chhota rasgulla. It is currently available at, among other handful of places, Ameer Sweet House in Purani Dilli's Haveli Azam Khan for 280 rupees per kilogram.
This afternoon, mithai shop attendant, the generous Shehzad, unhesitatingly shares the details of its preparation, as followed in his 60-year-old establishment.
1. Soak white rice in water for a day.
2. Rinse and drain the soaked rice many times over in tap water until all the debris and 'mitti' is drained away, along with much of the starch.
3. Unroll a cloth on a flat surface, and spread the rinsed rice on the cloth. Leave the rice for a few hours, and wait for it to dry.
4. Grind all the dried rice in a flour mill into fine powder.
5. Prepare chashni in a cauldron by boiling sugar in water.
6. Pour the rice flour into the boiling chashni, and cook, until the rice absorb all the chashni.
7. Leave the doughy rice for a day to 'set.'
8. Divide the 'set' dough into small golis, roll each sticky goli in a bed of til seeds. Deep fry in ghee.
But why is anarse ki goli exclusive to the rainy season? 'Each dish has its season,' explains Shehzad patiently.
The same query is put to the cook at Arshad Sweets in Mohalla Qabristan Chowk. 'It's a tradition—rains start, and we start making anarse ki goli.'
In the facing mithai shop, owner Abdul Ghaffar smiles at the question, and explains courteously: 'Anarse ki goli is made of til and rice. Till warms the body, rice cools the body, and so it is consumed in the monsoon months when days tend to be alternately hot and cold.'
