Diwali is a joyful yet chaotic time to visit a South Asian mithai shop in London. In fact, lines extend beyond the door and sometimes also involve tense moments of argument if someone joins the queue halfway, a very desi thing that reminds you of home and also makes you smile.
As sweets or mithai are an essential part of the celebrations, especially during Diwali, and a generational embodiment, it aims to unite people in the South Asian diaspora.
While Diwali is called the festival of lights, mithai is central to the festivities – be its versatile use as a gift, its purpose as a prasad for puja, or a delicacy to be enjoyed as a celebration.
Visiting a mithai shop just before Diwali is a festive experience in itself. Looking at soan papdi – which often dissolves into the background and is dominated by more embellished sweets – kaju katli filled with cashews, the smell of freshly set kalakand, or the sight of sizzling hot jalebis is a celebration of its own kind.
Before this Diwali, to be celebrated in India and among its Hindu diaspora in the United Kingdom and everywhere else, on 24 October, I explored some iconic mithai shops that exist in the lanes of London.
Ambala, Wembley
Ambala has consistently increased its base to match the needs of the expanding South Asian community across the United Kingdom.
From its modest beginning in the dwellings of High Holborn in 1964 to its first store in Drummond Street in 1965, Mohammed Ali Khan, the founder of the Ambala Foods Company, wanted to honour and immortalise his birth city in India – Ambala.
While the most popular sweets at the shop are traditional treats like pera, kaju katli, and besan ladoo, it also promises habshi halwa and walnut halwa along with various flavours of barfi.
"I have been coming to Ambala for the past fifteen years around the year, but especially on Diwali," says a customer standing in the queue for half an hour, ahead of the festive weekend.
"For me, Diwali is coming to Ambala stores and having habshi halwa – along with other traditional sweets – for my family and friends and to bring back memories from my homeland India."Customer
The secret of Ambala's unmatched quality and taste continues to attract the diaspora from South Asia, and it offers a wide variety of sweets of the highest quality. For example, they are known to carefully source their milk from only the Channel Island cattle – leaving a lingering and distinct experience of the milk-based sweets.
Jalebi Junction, Southall
Jalebi Junction in Southall, owned by a family of Pakistani origin, is known for its sizzling hot jalebis that are specially prepared from fermented batter and are then dipped in sugar syrup. It has served the world-famous jalebis to many visiting South Asian dignitaries, including the late Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Nawaz Sharif, Shehbaz Sharif, and Sheikh Hasina, among many others.
Jalebi is a mithai that's not restricted to special occasions but is something that can be brought to the table daily. The shop situated in Southall – a major centre of South Asian culture in London – imitates a mithai shop of a chauraha in a South Asian town.
During Diwali, or any festival celebrated by the diaspora, people from all walks of life, of all religions, queue up to savour the hot-piping jalebis outside the shop.
As Adeel Choudhry, the general manager, squeezes the batter from the cloth and carves out jalebis into the frying pan, a smile seems to overpower his tiredness, despite not getting a moment to spare since morning.
"The honour of serving our people and bringing them back to wonderful childhood stories – even for split seconds – keeps us going. As mithai is a generational thing, it lightens our hearts when we see the older generation come with their grandchildren and tell them stories of their Diwali days while the jalebi is getting ready."Adeel Choudhry
The experience is one of its kind and no words can ever do any justice to that, he adds smilingly.
As the hot jalebis are dipped into the sugar syrup – the atmosphere drastically changes from curiosity to excitement: the aroma uniting and harmonising people.
The world-famous sweet shop witnesses a heavy rush at least once a week before the Diwali festivities, meaning Jalebi Junction produces three times more sweets during celebrations.
“As Diwali stands for light, let us keep spreading brotherhood and help each other,” the 32-year-old mithaiwalla says.
Rajmahal Sweets, Brick Lane
When the Late Abdus Sattar migrated to the United Kingdom from Sylhet, Bangladesh, at the age of 17, his first job was working at an English restaurant. After wearing different hats, including as a clothes merchant, he saw a potential in the sweets business. He established the first store of Rajmahal Sweets at Brick Lane in 2002.
The shop consists of various Bengali sweets, as Sattar’s Bengali culture influenced his mithai-making, and is quite famous for its Irani cham cham, angoori rasmalai, and kala jamun. Rajmahal sells more than 30 different kinds of sweets and uses classified butter (desi ghee) to prepare sweets. However, Rajmahal also has mithai made in vegetable ghee to keep up with the inflation.
Soaked, prepared and submerged with milk, rabadi cham cham combines rabadi and cham cham, garnished with pistachio and almonds. The sweet shop is also home to the kala jamun sandwich, coconut jamun, shahi rasmalai, and many other traditional Bengali sweets.
The shop has been looked after and managed by two of Sattar’s children – Abdus Ahmed and Forid Ahmed – since his death.
Forid Ahmed, 35, shares how the store has lived and diversified into a business based on market forces.
As he ships the order to one of the student accommodations at The London School of Economics and Political Science, he says, "We have struggled over the years. Looking back, we have been very patient with our business regarding its expansion. And therefore, I do want to expand this business further. However, I would certainly like to maintain the legacy our late father left us with – and it lives up to its brand, locally and nationally."
Prashad Sweets, Wembley
Prashad Sweets in Wembley is well-known for its affordable Gujarati sweets and snacks, it was founded by Jayesh Thakkar in the late 1980s.
Before it began diversifying itself, it sold every sweet and snack under the 'one-pound kilo economy' so that students and old-age people from the South Asian community could afford and have a satisfying taste of them.
Even today, the shop’s customer base is dominated by university students and old-age people as the recession has significantly hit the UK market.
It has developed a special place for many Gujarati community members and is also known for its Gujarati delicacies like ghughra, chorafali, mathiya, gathiya, papdi, and suvari. It is also well-known for its Punjabi samosa and sweets like kaju katli, walnut halva, and milkcake.
As a significant footfall was expected on Diwali weekend, preparations to cater to the demand started two weeks in advance.
"This year, we have around seven-eight helpers throughout the day, as people are celebrating it widely after two years of suspension due to COVID-19. Despite all the challenges we face, the glowing smile on students during Diwali after eating sweets and snacks from us gives us significant satisfaction. For some, we are home away from home, in every sense," says Amit Thakkar, assistant manager at Prashad Sweets.
Kalrav Joshi is a multimedia journalist based in London. He writes on politics, democracy, culture and technology. He tweets @kalravjoshi_.
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