Sweet Biting

Appears in
Biting Biting: Snacking Gujarati-Style
Biting Biting

By Urvashi Roe

Published 2022

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Biting Biting doesn’t have to be savoury. Gujaratis are famous for their sweet tooth. As children we are encouraged to take a bite of something sweet to quash the heat on our tongues rather than sip water. This could simply be a piece of jaggery or some fruit. I especially liked mangoes and pomegranates. When we were lucky it was a nice pudding.

I am a sucker for Sweet Bitings which are often handed out as prasad at temples. These are offerings made to the deities and then shared amongst the devotees. This was always my favourite part of going to the temple as a child. I remember my Dad or Govind Bapa carrying me up to ding the bell on entry and then I would patiently sit through all the hymns and sermons and prayers – aarti – with the promise of penda or burfi at the end.