Banaras Sweet House

Down at Avenue Road M G road 259, you’ll find us at Banaras Sweet House. We’ve been working with large vats of milk and sugar for as long as I can remember. The street outside is always packed with people and carts, so it’s never quiet here. We have big trays of barfi and jalebis sitting in the window. The bees sometimes try to get in, so we are always shooing them away. We don't have any air conditioning, just a couple of ceiling fans that spin really fast. Our hands are usually covered in flour or syrup by noon. We use old-fashioned scales to weigh everything out into paper bags. It’s a bit messy, and the floor can get slippery if we aren't careful with the oil. We don't have a website or anything like that. People just know we are here because of the smell of frying sweets. We start cooking before the sun comes up to make sure everything is ready. The walls could use a new coat of paint, and the ceiling is a bit stained from the steam. But the food is what people come for. We don't change the recipes much because that’s how we were taught. It’s hard work being on your feet near the hot stoves, but we are used to it by now. Just a local shop on a busy corner trying to keep things going and keeping the regulars happy with their usual orders.