I had a friend who tried to explain to me what Jalebi was. When he finished, I said "so, it's like Indian funnel cake?". He looked me dead in the eye and said "funnel cake is American Jalebi". I'll never forget that
LOL. Technically correct, if you look at the history of funnel cake, Zalabiyeh is listed as the original concept. Mind you, I only know that because someone mentioned funnel cake and I had to google what the heck is that. (Not my type of sweets.)
I grew up in an area with a large Indian population and always loved Diwali. Houses would be lit up, the temple was beautifully decorated, there were so many fireworks that the neighbourhood sounded like it was exploding, and neighbours and co-workers would give out sweets. There was a sweet old woman who lived next door, she'd bring us various Indian sweets on Diwali and we'd bring her shortbread at Christmas. Now I live in a place where no one had heard of Diwali and it's one of the things I really miss around this time of year.
@Andrea Maybe you should invite some of your local friends and neighbours over for a Diwali party and help show them what it's all about. You could ask them to bring the traditional gifts and wear bright colours. Might be fun and helps raise awareness in the local community. Who knows, maybe someone would do the same for you next year! :)
I'm South Indian, and thus am sad to say I've never had really good Jalebi; it's not nearly as popular in South India. The ones I had most recently were soft, and had soaked up too much oil.
@@TastingHistory Подобен сладкиш опитах в Турция, макар да не е много типичен за кухнята там. Поздравления за вашата работа! Ваш почитател от България.
When I was a secretary at an accounting office, my boss was East Indian (as was 99.9% of our clients) and we celebrated Diwali at work. I remember these sweets well - our resident diabetic screamed in horror, and the sweetness was so intense it made our teeth hurt. I loved them, but the Gujurati version made me truly understand my boss: work hard, party hard, drink much, exercise a lot, high spiced savory food, high sugared sweets ... the man and our clients did *nothing* by half.
Oh I can believe that sweetness...years ago my wife and I decided to just try a different Eastern dessert...I forget the name, they're these little pastry balls with a red filling that you cook in a similar way to perogies...oh my GOD were they sweet. We couldn't eat them. Any East Indians reading this, please don't take this the wrong way, but given the extreme strength of the flavors of your dishes (the spicy plus the sweet), plus stories I've heard about East Indians calling Western food bland, I sometimes wonder if genetically you have damaged tastebuds.
@@Kiljaedenas shhido ( boiled ) puli. Fermented rice pastry stuffed with either stir-fried coconut filling( decicated coconut,milk, cardamom, jaggery { Indian brown sugar}) or kheer( evaporated milk solids with sugar) ,and steamed to cook. Another version is boot'er Puli made with gram flour ( instead of rice flour) pastry, and is deep fried instead of steamed.
@@ap-dk5yw Another culture clash story, while I was in university some friends of mine wanted to go out for dinner at an East Indian restaurant. They had multiple "grades" of spicy, everyone else at the table went with their lowest, mildest grade. I, thinking I could handle it, went one level up. The server (a somewhat salty older East Indian woman) when I asked her how spicy that level was she said "Oh it's not too spicy". My throat hurt for a fucking week after that meal. Note to self, never ask an older East Indian if one of their "gentler" meals is mildly spicy.
@@Kiljaedenas i mean it would probably make sence, we are nearer to the equator so to prespire more we intake more spices and since this has been going for over a millennia its probably a genetic imprint at this point lol 😆. In the northern parts the food is much milder and in the south its spicier. Try making some indian friends who can coorelate to your palate and you'll find some amazing dishes to enjoy.
I’m a paramedic in Scotland. Our city has a really large Asian community with Sikhs, Hindus, Muslims and a thriving Buddhist community. I absolutely love working during Diwali! The houses and temples are always so beautiful and the families are so generous and friendly! I work a late shift from 1pm to midnight and there’s never any need to bring food to work as any celebrating house we go to will insist on feeding us! Beautiful curries, jalebi by the box and even simple things like bottles of water or cans of juice (soda in your part of the world!) It’s a beautiful festival!
What a pleasant surprise, this is one of my favorites! In Iraq there aren't any special occasions in which this is eaten, but usually it's served as part of a platter (with different kinds of baklawa and other sweets). Great video.
@@42ZaphodB42 one of the things that surprised me when I visited India was how authentic Indian food was in the US. Most US Indian restaurants seem to do quite a few regional cuisines, but if you get biryani in the US and biryani in Hyderabad they’re not that different (the good stuff is in Hyderabad though). Very, very different from China, where Chinese food in the US is almost always nearly unrelated to the actual stuff.
@@Justanotherconsumer That's because "American" Chinese food is actually Mexican food. Americans discriminated against and segregated Chinese immigrants, but Mexicans didn't and Chinese preparations with Mexican ingredients blew up in popularity to a point that what we now know as "Chinese food" is actually the cook book of the families dispersed by the Chinese Exclusion Act.
I love old recipes that call for odd measurements, “a piece of butter the size of a squirrel’s ear”, or to boil an egg as long “as it takes to say a pater noster”. Thank you so much Max, I love your channel and the history of the recipes. Best of luck with your cookbook!
@@andrewphilos if I remember correctly, it wasn't until the late 1800s that time zones even started to become a thing. Before that, clocks were mostly set locally according to the Sun. Before that who even knows what weird standards people had, especially considering most of them wouldn't have been using the Julian calendar
@@pennyforyourthots My understanding is that most people only used hours for most of their time measurement, and minutes and seconds only really became popular due to the proliferation of trains. Trains need to be run extremely precisely from town to town, so time needed to be standardized down to the minute.
Thank you so much for this recipe and history! My mother was from India, my father from Germany, so I grew up on this (and many other) types of food. My father greatly enjoyed Indian food. He used to joke that Jalebi reminded him of the appearance of Malayalam script, which is very much based on curved shapes, as it was written traditionally on leaves that would tear if you drew a straight line in the wrong direction. My mother was not a person very interested in food, so my father taught himself Indian cooking. (Thank you, Madhur Jaffrey!) After my parents divorced, my father remarried to a German woman, nearly exactly his own age, and introduced her to Indian food, which she very much enjoyed. While it is not historical and suitable for this channel, I recommend Madhur Jaffery's recipe for lamb and spinach curry. It was my father's go-to dish for introducing people to Indian food. People who had never liked lamb before liked it. People who never liked spinach before liked it. People who never liked curry before liked it. People who said they'd never liked lamb, spinach OR curry before liked it. When the blog "The Great Big Vegetable Challenge" (aimed at getting a child unwilling to try vegetables open to new options) reached "S is for Spinach" I recommended it, and the dish was a hit. My father developed dementia and had to be in a nursing home since 2018, and COVID got him in early 2021. (After he was eligible for a vaccine, but when the distribution was so messed up he never had a chance.) You brought back profound memories for me.
I don’t like lamb or curry, but spinach is tasty. It would be amazing if I found a lamb curry that I could eat, because the rest of my family likes it a lot.
Fun fact There's a softer version of Jalebi in west bengal and Bangladesh that's called "chenar jilabi" which mostly consists of milk curd and soaked in syrup, man it's such a delight to eat it fresh and warm
Your ability to say words w/ the correct accents and dialects is amazing. You've done everything from Swedish to Chinese and everybody comments on how you say the words correct. Well done.
If you don't have a candy thermometer or you're at a high altitude and the temps never work out for you (rule of thumb: subtract 2° for every 1000ft above sea level), you can use the cold water test. 230° is the thread stage at sea level, so when the syrup is dropped into ice cold water, it will form threads.
Beat me to it! (c'mon Max, explain WHY it's called thread vs. hard ball!) Thanks for the description for those who may not have a candy thermometer on hand or live above sea level (my biggest issue with all cook books, "bake at" never covers altitude or oven whose settings are... "varied")
If you search for it there is a way to calibrate your thermometer to your altitude. It is basically boiling a specific amount of water and marking the thermometer when it hits a full boil. Like if the water is at a full boil but the thermometer only says 98⁰C/208⁰F you know that is the low boil then you boil it for so many minutes per meters/feet above sea level and then mark it again for your high boil. I think? It has been a long time since I read that and did my own.
@@nikkiewhite476 I've tried that in the past but might not have done it right. Cold water test works great for me so I just use the thermometer for general reference lol
I'm a Sihk, I've been looking forward to an episode about Jalebi forever! I'm so happy you included a little mention of Sihk history!! When you tackle Indian sweets again, maybe do Gulab Jamun? A little fried dough ball soaked in syrup. I'll be honest and say I don't know if it has an interesting history, but it's a super nostalgic favourite of my family. Happy Diwali to you, Max!
Thank you so much for doing this Max! Diwali means so much to me as an Indian and this is the first time that I won’t get to celebrate with my family. Appreciate all the joy and knowledge you bring!
For maximizing the use of Saffron I recommend grinding it into a powder with a little bit of sugar using a mortar and pestle, then adding the water. It's what they do in Iran and it allows you to use half the quantity for the same color and flavor. Saffron isn't cheap after all.
"so if you find yourself on the roads to Bengal.... in the 1860s..." ROFL! This is why I love you, Max. History mixed with comedy and good eats, to boot!
I absolutely love jalebi. I am a South African, from Durban, and the first time I tried it was in 4th grade when we were doing a culture week. I fell in love with it, then and there. I've always likened it to another South African sweet called koeksisters which is also a fried dough soaked in a syrup
@@christakriel3632 I also love both but the ones I eat more often are the boere koeksisters. They're easier to find when you especially when you have afrikaans family friends
@@feathertouchasmr I live in Cape Town and the Muslim ones are quite easy to find as most take-away places sell lovely fresh ones. But I also l9ve both.
Diwali is the best holiday and I'd love to see more people adopt it. I lived in an apartment building that had a large number of Nepalese living there, and they put on a great Diwali every year. Five days of absolute joy.
Thank you Max for the education. Now I finally know the actual name of Diwali. The plant I work at has a majority of its night shift workers coming from Nepal. We'd have nights around this time that we'd essentially shut down because the workforce all called out. They'd all say it was "festival" (English proficiency varies, but the company sponsors classes). Now, I actually know the holiday and a possible treat to bring in.
I just love how you actually make an effort to not only not butcher other languages pronunciation, but to actually do it as correctly as possible. Respect.
Here’s another parallel: “Jalebi” almost sounds like “zeppoli”, which is fried dough that is then sweetened; traditionally served at midnight on Christmas Eve when the Christian world welcome in “the Light”. (an adaptation of Saturnalia, also welcoming the return of light when days get longer after the winter solstice). . . . and I always thought zeppoli were adopted from Jewish potato Latkes, as they are a fried food celebrating the oil lamps lasting 8 days of Hanukkah, also a feast of light. Hmmm. So many parallels can be drawn!! Great episode!
I am half Indian. I loved celebrating Holi and Diwali with my dad. He was not religious, but we enjoyed the cultural aspect of celebrations. I know now that he just never taught us the religious part because there are just soooo many differences (even within just one country!)!
Great video, Max! Looks delicious. It's really cool that you took time to mention Ziryab. I heard about him before and how he was kind of the world's first rock star in a way.
@@TastingHistory Yep, Ziryab is very well known in the Arab world, especially in the western part (around Morocco) due to the influence of Al-Andalus on North Africa.
@@coley4242 2 months late to the party but I have to endorse this endorsement of Puppet History on Watcher. When Max mentioned Ziryab, I immediately thought "I know that guy! He's the ancient rock star The Professor taught us about! His lute sang us a trippy song!"
I was really happy to see this. I'm from Kenya, and there is a lot of Indian influence there. Luckily, Jalebi are one of them. So good. I'm going to try making this for my Christmas party this year.
@@judeirwin2222 You're not wrong about my mistake, but you are taking this rather seriously. It's one dropped apostrophe. It's not going to cause English to collapse. It's a nice autumn day. Go have a walk and look at some clouds.
Both my parents are Iranian so I grew up eating these and love them so much. I had no idea so many other people around the world also had their versions too! This was really neat to watch! Thank you!
I think the best description for the texture would be the 'ribbon' stage? Where it flows easily but holds it's shape for a moment before 'melting' back into the rest of the batter? Another wonderful episode and a delightful dish! I always love your deep dives, I'll have to try making these!
Diwali/ Deepavali was originally similar to Halloween. The lamps are supposed to lit the path to the Realm of Ancestors for souls who came to the Earth to take oblations, on the earlier month. Later it got associated with divinities- in North India as return of Rama, in South India with slaying of Demon Naraka, in East India with Kalipuja, in West India with New Year. But Lakshmi (goddess of wealth & prosperity) Puja is common as it is the harvest season. Happy Diwali!
@@gwennorthcutt421 I've seen candles lit in church on All Saints' Day for the beloved dead, and I suppose jack-o'-lanterns are a secular remnant. I think Dia de Los Muertos has candles, too.
Those look yummy. Your presentation is spot on. Your endorsement of: "I can't eat them all. But I might eat them all" is precious. Was wondering how Chimchar was going to make his way into the episode. Oh! And I just got how perfect the selection is, as he's fire type. Happy anniversary to you both! I have been enjoying Hawaiian PoGo postcards.
ohh, this is zoolbia! It's a persian dish that we usually eat at nowruz (persian new year) to mark the beginning of spring. i had no idea it was something present in other cultures, thats super cool
I cannot express how informative your histories are. It simplifies so many complex ideas as you distill the essence. Your notifications are always my favorite. At first I thought you were a professor since you research your subjects so throughly.
I had a version somewhere in Morocco - it was a hectic whirlwind seven day trip to six cities, so in my recollection it is a jet-lagged mess of a recollection - that was made with millet flour and flavored with orange blossom water called "slabi" or something close to that, but was still recognizably jalebi. On another trip, this time to Egypt, I was served mushabak that were blood red (almost like a red velvet cake color) sweetened with honey and ginger topped by sesame seeds, which - until seeing this video - I would have thought a separate dish, but now I know better. My son to this day still calls them "African funnel cake".
Excellent summary of Diwali! Where I live there is a MASSIVE Sikh population, and Diwali is usually celebrated mostly concurrent with Hallow'een by that community. With lots and LOTS of fireworks, usually driving my dog insane with fear at the explosions. Jalebi are available year-round at the multitude of Indian 'sweet shops' in the 'Punjabi Market' area and other high Sikh population areas and are generally sweeter and simplified compared to the more complex one you made, being made of thinner dough and so soaked with syrup that you can literally bite the end off of one and pour syrup out of it like a bottle of the stuff ;-) That said they are still enjoyable to eat but you just can't eat too many in a row. My kids adore them. Great video!
Yep, when Max bit into that Jalebi I thought to myself "bloody hell you overcooked that" but I realise it's a different recipe lol! I have Sikh family so I'm used to taking part in Diwali and I'd quite often get treated to Indian sweets as we always called them, or mithai/halwa which is the actual name. My favourites are still Ladoo, but they're all so good! Jalebi always was a family favourite. They are exactly like how you described, a chewy/crunchy spiralled roll filled with sticky syrup. I'm looking forward to having a quiet warm night on monday and sending wishes to family and friends, Diwali really is a beautiful occasion. I always loved it more than Christmas or birthdays or any western holiday really. Because there's no "YOU DIDN'T GET THE RIGHT PRESENT!" it's just delicious food, candles, bright colours, and expressions of love and support.
@@Megan-ii4gf There are a LOT of really tasty Indian sweets all right! My personal fave is cashew barfi, even though the name makes most other white people giggle when they hear it. I like the concept and history of Diwali too, I just wish there were less fireworks being set off in every back yard for multiple nights on end. I don't know if that's just the Greater Vancouver area's Sikh population that does the fireworks thing or it's worldwide, but it's torture on my poor old dog who has never gotten used to it in the whole 12 years of her life. She'll bark, howl, pee on the floor and in general just be miserable. She must have more sensitive hearing then most because she has gotten used to many other strange things easily, but never the BOOM! of fireworks.
By the way, Max, if you want to mimic the color of saffron without using food coloring, then get some Bijol. This is a product you'll find at Latin markets. It's a powder that gets its color and flavor from annatto, and it's not anywhere near as expensive as saffron. My mother always uses it when she makes _paella._ It comes in little 1-oz tins or in a larger jar, and I highly recommend it for anyone who wants that golden color but can't afford the expensive spice. :)
Heck yeah Max!!!! Literally was making jalebis for pre-diwali right now and saw your video notification. I did squeal a little and I am absolutely not embarrassed about it.
He does such a good job! You can tell he's a trained singer, learning to pronounce things in languages you don't know is part of the training, and he practically sings every unfamiliar word.
thanks for covering Jhilapi, as it's called in Bangladesh, it's a staple here in sweet shops but also it's all the rage during Ramadan, there are so many variants of it, it's amazing. I would definitely recommend that you try out more Sub Continental recipes :)
I live in Leicester in the UK and our city has a huge Diwali celebration every year. Even as a kid I used to look forward to this time of year because of the samosas and Indian sweets. I always remember the samosas and pakora being served at our Bonfire Night celebration when I was at primary school and to this day I still make a batch of samosas every November 5th because of that! Talk about cultural fusion
You can go way overboard with cardamom, too. I have a recipe for cardamom cookies that uses one eighth of a teaspoon of powdered cardamom for the entire batch. It's plenty. (They're delicious.)
Suggestion from my Persian relatives: grind up the saffron threads with some of the sugar in a mortar & pestle until it's a fine-ish powder before adding to the mix. You get more out of your saffron that way. "Opium, bhang, and datura" sounds like a typical weekend in my ill-spent 20s... 😏 Thank gods I've matured since then.
Using Pansear to stand in for Hanuman is quite clever, Max. And what a beautiful holiday! And how cool is it that the author troubleshoots the recipe for us!
I love reading the comments on these videos, because I get a sort of second-hand joy from seeing other cultures' food and history being talked about and made in a respectful manner. Max, you definitely take pains to get it right, and based off all these nice comments, it is not in vain.
I first had Jalebi at a local Indian restaurant in Northern Virginia and I fell in love. Though what I've had is less crunchy and more like a wet & sticky funnel cake. I think I described them to someone as "delicious resin." I haven't made them in years, and lately I've been thinking about giving it a try again. I think seeing this video has tipped me over the edge on doing it, maybe for Thanksgiving.
The dessert looks yummy, the festival and history really fascinating, but the biggest surprise really is how detailed is the recipe: it sounds like something that might have been written today!
My favourite use of cardamom is cracking open a few pods and throwing it into a "alfredo" sauce that's heating up to infuse it with cardamom. Surprisingly works really well.
Once again -- "sweet fried dough" appears to be a universal human experience. I do love that the recipe appears to be written for someone who has never had this before, so they can tell whether they did it right by description!
Diwali is my favourite holiday that I've had the pleasure to share in. I'll never forget one year where we had a gathering, with singing and dancing, and we torched the prairie restoration that my friend worked on (in central Wisconsin). Magical!
I've been benefited by Max's well-thought researches and memorable delivery. He clearly is someone opens to everyone's voice from all cultural background. He listens to variety of inputs and pays equal attention regardless his own familiarity. I think this dedication earned him the popularity. I've gained awareness of cultures I usually had no familiarity through this channel. Examples will be the Babylonian, Brazillian, the Mughal Indian, the Volga German, etc. from previous videos. Keep up the good work.
I really enjoyed the history in this week's episode. Feels like there's some symbolism/religious significance to the spiral shape that you keep unbroken when making these.
one of my happiest childhood memories was visiting the local indian sweet shop. I remember my mother lifting me up to watch the chef as he made fresh jalebi. He piped a ferfect pattern into the hot oil, then dipped the fried disc of batter into syrup, then straight into the box just for me to take home. 😍 I called it by this indian sweet by its persian name, zoolbia, as my father is persian, but the persian version I learned later in life is more like a mexican churro dipped in rose syrup.
I adore that you put obvious effort into properly pronouncing all of the words and names that are new to your lexicon. For one, it's fun to listen to new words, and for two, it demonstrates your respect for the new people, places, and other things that you're learning about and teaching us about.
Yessss I love to see this! We have a predominantly Indian neighborhood and right now they are celebrating Diwali and I love to learn more about their culture ☺️
I don't usually comment on anything on line. However I just wanted to let you know that, your videos are an inspiration for me. I manage a state park's restaurant in Tennessee, watching these and listening to them give me the creative spark I need to try out new and exciting recipes. Thank you.
In Iran we call this dessert Zoolbia, which is usually made larger than Bamieh, which is exactly the same dessert but instead of a lattice shaped it is turned into small ovals but made the same way. In Iran it is almost always sold together. I hope you make more delicious from Persian Empire, or a Persian food.
I had a fresh-off-the boat supervisor from India a few years ago that used to describe something as "all jalebi" when the situation was effed up beyond all recognition. They didn't believe me when I pointed out that we have our own version, funnel cake.
I absolutely ADORE this history/food channel---SO informative with great stories mixed in with wry humor!!!!! But I gotta admit that one of the reasons I watch is because Max is SO EASY on the eyes!!!!!!! A joy to watch!!!!!💖💖🥰🥰✌✌
I got to go to India for work a couple times and Jalebi was the single best dessert I had while there. When I went back the second time that was one of the things my coworkers who had gone previously were most jealous of.
शुभ दीवाली Jalebi to Zalabyia From the book of dishes Excellent standard In it's recording and writing The auspicious festival of lights Provides a place of ceremony Where eating by the row of lights Bringing together people every year The dish, the holiday, stories Differ by the millennium Change by the decade True eternal things Are subject to change The purity of observance Community and family Will keep it alight and warm Every year, to this day
This is great. Please do a video for "shawarma" next. I grew up in the Middle East, and the history of Middle Eastern cuisine has always fascinated me.
The new Mean Comments video sent me here. My dad grew up in India (American born abroad, not Indian himself), and he loved Jalebi more than anything in the world. On a visit to India, 50 years after leaving, he ate himself sick on them.
@@TastingHistory in North Africa (Tunisia) we use beef, ideally fatty pieces to make it like a strong soup, we also enjoy Zlabia particularly during Ramadan!
Great episode. Also, as a Vite Ramen fan, I can attest - they're delicious! Grocery store ramen, you eat the pack, and get hungry 2 hours later. Vite Ramen sticks with you as well as being WAY more tasty than grocery store varieties. Its a bit spendy, but WORTH IT!
Happy Deepavali Max!! Thanks so much for this episode! In South India, we call this as Jahangiri ( made with all purpose flour fermented with curd). What we call Jalebi is made of dehusked black gram soaked and ground into a fluffy white batter. This fluffy unfermented is used and piped in the oil and dunked in saffron colored sugar syrup. During this festive season these soft juicy freshly made jalebis sell as fast as they are made. My childhood memories of Diwali are about the fat male chef and his 2 female helpers who would work the whole night in our large garage, making thousands of jalebis and other sweets and savouries. These, we would distribute to friends and relatives and store the less perishable savouries for many months and snack on them. Back then we never knew the word ‘dieting’ so the whole family would love eating all these ghee rich sweets. Thanks again Max for making me relive these memories ❤
Oh wow, your timing is magical Max. I was just recently looking for an authentic historical recipe for Jalebi. I ran across it playing "Cook, Serve, Delicious!" lol, and thought, what is THIS?! And here you are. I feel like it's Christmas.
Wow the original recepie is soo detailed! I mean they provide ideas how to fix it if it does not turn out like expected - like what!? That is amazing! Plus thesd ones look so good - that crunch!
Zlabia is made in north Africa too (mostly Algeria) with many versions existing like the zlabia made from semolina in the eastern regions of the country. This dessert is mostly present and made during the holy month of Ramadan, usually served with tea. As for its origin, many say it was made in Andalusia by mistake by a cook who inadvertently dropped some dough in hot oil and said : "Zala biya" which roughly translates to "I messed it up". In any way, I really enjoy all of your content and admire the amount of work you put in every video you post !
In sanskrit/hindi there is no native "z" sound. Instead you just add a dot under the letter "ja" (ज > ज़) (this is done for all non-native sounds included in Hindi/sanskrit) which would explain why it would become jalebi (in sanskrit it also would have been jalebiya I believe because there is an assumed अ at the end of words).
My favorite part of the video was to learn about how other communities celebrate the day of Diwali...n how vastly the Jalebi is spread acrossthe world....really love it😍😍❤❤👍👍💕💕😇😇
Fried, sugared dough could unite the whole world! I don't usually add a comment but I do need to say that your presence, combined with the actual content is a winning combination. Thank you.
this is very interesting, we do have it in Tunisia (we call it zlebya) but i've always thought it is originally from india, because of the technique with which it's fried.
Fun fact re: cleaning products... Bagels and pretzels often involve a dip in lye water. That's why they have a shiny brown crust that's different from other breads. And in the opposite direction, vinegar is super useful for cleaning.
@@nobetawedielikemysanity you are not wrong, but as i said well loved. Even in west bengal gulab jamun is equally popular however i mentioned well loved which means everyone who has had it will always go back for more.
@Soviet Union i can't accept the fact as the case is still going on 😁 whatever comes off rosogolla is their. Regardless most Indians and non Indians associate it with west bengal irrespective of what the court finally decides.
Can I put in a word for rasmalai? And those wonderful green milk sweet squares with pistachios on top? And the wonderful crunchy one that's like "honeycomb" but better? Sorry, I don't know their names because I only buy them by pointing.
We can't ever talk about any sweet in India without that one person who would shoehorn in a Roshogolla. This video is about Jalebi Mimi, let's talk about that.
This was wonderful to watch, Max! I thoroughly enjoyed it. Thanks to your videos, I end up cooking and eating more homefood while listening to you speak. Some points for non-Indian viewers: 1. If you're going to use camphor, please use edible camphor. There is a difference. I'm not sure on the availability of the edible one in other countries. 2. Jalebi is eaten as a breakfast dish with yogurt or milk in some parts of India 3. Diwali is still celebrated now in the exact way it was described in all those historical accounts 4. For you Max - Let the pieces break if they do. It's fun to smuggle out the smaller pieces from a serving plate to justify that you're not eating too many sweets ;)
Happy Diwali Max bhaiyaa ! Bhaiya is brother in hindi :) I have always loved watching your videos and this one was a great surprise, since this dish is very much ingrained into our festivals not just diwali but many more !
My grandmother use to make these during Diwali and all the kids ate the left over sugar. Really good job on pronunciation. She always told us the story of Rama while making these but thanks for adding context and origin of Jalebi.
this reminds me a lot of korean 약과 (yakgwa) cakes, its a fried cookie soaked in honey/gingery syrup :) They are usually for Chuseok (Korean thanksgiving) but they are served at other fancy occasions because they are very good.
It really makes me feel connected in a sense to ancient people to know they really weren't much different than people today and that people from an entirely different culture, again, weren't really that different from me. The way the recipe was written, with exactness, and then gives a description on what it should and shouldn't taste like means this person was not only meticulous but very aware that people not from his time period or his culture would be reading it some day. The awareness that there are worlds out there on earth other than your own is hard for people to understand today, even with the internet, so for someone in a small corner of the world with no idea many countries and continents even existed to show awareness that not everyone shares the same background as they do is mind blowing.
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I had 1000 year-old Jalebi...now I'd have 1000 year diarrhea. Never eat ANYTHING you find in an excavation site. The tenth century can keep its food.
Video title - *Zalabia*
0:07 - *Zalabiya*
1:15 - *Zalabyia*
@@Eidolon1andOnly you can see my frustration
@@TastingHistory I like the towel you used in this video to cover your batter. It’s very Halloween like.
$27.00 for a 250+ page hardcover is darn nice.
Edit: Whoops - $40 CDN.
I had a friend who tried to explain to me what Jalebi was. When he finished, I said "so, it's like Indian funnel cake?". He looked me dead in the eye and said "funnel cake is American Jalebi". I'll never forget that
Both of these are just versions of the Finnish tippaleipä 😁 /jk
LOL.
Technically correct, if you look at the history of funnel cake, Zalabiyeh is listed as the original concept.
Mind you, I only know that because someone mentioned funnel cake and I had to google what the heck is that. (Not my type of sweets.)
@@limeparticle homie tried to slip in irrelevant finland like we wouldnt notice🤣😭😭😭
Eh, fried dough is one of the great human universals
@@TMarlands ikr? If we can agree on at least one thing it should be this and other delicious food 😌🤤
I grew up in an area with a large Indian population and always loved Diwali. Houses would be lit up, the temple was beautifully decorated, there were so many fireworks that the neighbourhood sounded like it was exploding, and neighbours and co-workers would give out sweets. There was a sweet old woman who lived next door, she'd bring us various Indian sweets on Diwali and we'd bring her shortbread at Christmas. Now I live in a place where no one had heard of Diwali and it's one of the things I really miss around this time of year.
@Andrea Maybe you should invite some of your local friends and neighbours over for a Diwali party and help show them what it's all about. You could ask them to bring the traditional gifts and wear bright colours. Might be fun and helps raise awareness in the local community. Who knows, maybe someone would do the same for you next year! :)
the triangle area or charlotte, NC?
I bet you are less proud and you ashamed of being Scot, because you think you are a citizen of the world and you coexist?
@@buffster948I would love to be invited to that!!! It sounds like a mix of Halloween and 4th of July!
Got to appreciate that no matter what year or what country we live in we all enjoy fried dough covered in sugar
Amen to that!
Just goes to show humans never really change. I love it.
@@oopsgingermoment Some things never go out of style.
Truly a humanity classic.
What truly brings us all together.
I love any recipe that uses flower flavours. Rose, orange blossom, violet, lavender…gorgeous!!
it's underrated
"There are like 40 of these, I can't eat them all.... but I might eat them all * crunch crunch *" You're such a joy and a gem to watch.
*proceeds to eat them all*
And the next episode is some form of a salad
@@blackdragon7979 🤣😂
I'm South Indian, and thus am sad to say I've never had really good Jalebi; it's not nearly as popular in South India.
The ones I had most recently were soft, and had soaked up too much oil.
You should find a boyfriend a girlfriend like a local to you.@@valoryj5603
I love how this comment section is so international. People from all over the world telling their stories. Food really brings people together!
I love it!
@@TastingHistory Подобен сладкиш опитах в Турция, макар да не е много типичен за кухнята там. Поздравления за вашата работа! Ваш почитател от България.
When I was a secretary at an accounting office, my boss was East Indian (as was 99.9% of our clients) and we celebrated Diwali at work. I remember these sweets well - our resident diabetic screamed in horror, and the sweetness was so intense it made our teeth hurt. I loved them, but the Gujurati version made me truly understand my boss: work hard, party hard, drink much, exercise a lot, high spiced savory food, high sugared sweets ... the man and our clients did *nothing* by half.
Oh I can believe that sweetness...years ago my wife and I decided to just try a different Eastern dessert...I forget the name, they're these little pastry balls with a red filling that you cook in a similar way to perogies...oh my GOD were they sweet. We couldn't eat them.
Any East Indians reading this, please don't take this the wrong way, but given the extreme strength of the flavors of your dishes (the spicy plus the sweet), plus stories I've heard about East Indians calling Western food bland, I sometimes wonder if genetically you have damaged tastebuds.
@@Kiljaedenas shhido ( boiled ) puli.
Fermented rice pastry stuffed with either stir-fried coconut filling( decicated coconut,milk, cardamom, jaggery { Indian brown sugar}) or kheer( evaporated milk solids with sugar) ,and steamed to cook.
Another version is boot'er Puli made with gram flour ( instead of rice flour) pastry, and is deep fried instead of steamed.
@@Kiljaedenas lol as a east indian this made me chukle 😂
@@ap-dk5yw Another culture clash story, while I was in university some friends of mine wanted to go out for dinner at an East Indian restaurant. They had multiple "grades" of spicy, everyone else at the table went with their lowest, mildest grade. I, thinking I could handle it, went one level up. The server (a somewhat salty older East Indian woman) when I asked her how spicy that level was she said "Oh it's not too spicy".
My throat hurt for a fucking week after that meal. Note to self, never ask an older East Indian if one of their "gentler" meals is mildly spicy.
@@Kiljaedenas i mean it would probably make sence, we are nearer to the equator so to prespire more we intake more spices and since this has been going for over a millennia its probably a genetic imprint at this point lol 😆. In the northern parts the food is much milder and in the south its spicier. Try making some indian friends who can coorelate to your palate and you'll find some amazing dishes to enjoy.
I’m a paramedic in Scotland. Our city has a really large Asian community with Sikhs, Hindus, Muslims and a thriving Buddhist community. I absolutely love working during Diwali! The houses and temples are always so beautiful and the families are so generous and friendly! I work a late shift from 1pm to midnight and there’s never any need to bring food to work as any celebrating house we go to will insist on feeding us! Beautiful curries, jalebi by the box and even simple things like bottles of water or cans of juice (soda in your part of the world!) It’s a beautiful festival!
Glasgow, I take it?
@@samovarsa2640 yep! Specifically our station is in Govanhill!
Sorry. You guys call pop “juice?”
I am VERY concerned.
@@misskate3815 Nah, juice is different to pop (soda). Pop is fizzy, juice isn't.
@@rambledogs2012 exactly. According to this dude they call soda pop juice in his land.
A freshly made jalebi with a steaming cup of chai is one of the simple pleasures of life.
Thanks, now my mouth is watering lol
That sounds fantastic☺️
Too sweet!! Jalebi with kadhai doodh... Much better combo 😄
I haven't tried jalebi, but I do love a good chai. Now I need to try them both together.
A lot of the best things in life pair well with chai.
What a pleasant surprise, this is one of my favorites! In Iraq there aren't any special occasions in which this is eaten, but usually it's served as part of a platter (with different kinds of baklawa and other sweets). Great video.
*Woah woah woah. Hakim?!?!??!?!?* I definitely wasn't expecting this. Love your work.
Lmao what an unexpected crossover. Collab incoming?
seize the means of ...consumption?
apparently i'm not the only leftist that watches tasting history!
Mashallah!!! It's Hakim.
I was recently at an Indian restaurant, and they offered me some jalebi for free and explained to me their upcoming holiday. It was delicious!!
Food sharing holidays are the best thing human culture has created.
Very friendly. Run of the mill indian restaurants always have that familiar flare. You almost feel like you're eating in an indian livingroom.
@@42ZaphodB42 one of the things that surprised me when I visited India was how authentic Indian food was in the US. Most US Indian restaurants seem to do quite a few regional cuisines, but if you get biryani in the US and biryani in Hyderabad they’re not that different (the good stuff is in Hyderabad though).
Very, very different from China, where Chinese food in the US is almost always nearly unrelated to the actual stuff.
@@Justanotherconsumer That's because "American" Chinese food is actually Mexican food. Americans discriminated against and segregated Chinese immigrants, but Mexicans didn't and Chinese preparations with Mexican ingredients blew up in popularity to a point that what we now know as "Chinese food" is actually the cook book of the families dispersed by the Chinese Exclusion Act.
@@Stroggoii sounds like there’s a good Tasting History episode there somewhere.
I love old recipes that call for odd measurements, “a piece of butter the size of a squirrel’s ear”, or to boil an egg as long “as it takes to say a pater noster”. Thank you so much Max, I love your channel and the history of the recipes. Best of luck with your cookbook!
In a time before minutes and seconds were commonplace, you can measure short time periods with a prayer everyone knows!
@@andrewphilos Yes, time moved in a different rhythm back then, indeed.
@@andrewphilos if I remember correctly, it wasn't until the late 1800s that time zones even started to become a thing. Before that, clocks were mostly set locally according to the Sun.
Before that who even knows what weird standards people had, especially considering most of them wouldn't have been using the Julian calendar
@@pennyforyourthots My understanding is that most people only used hours for most of their time measurement, and minutes and seconds only really became popular due to the proliferation of trains. Trains need to be run extremely precisely from town to town, so time needed to be standardized down to the minute.
@@andrewphilos Tell that to my local trains! Pretty sure they use Lunar phases to tell the time.
Chef's kiss to you for covering different religions' celebrations and traditional foods associated with those celebrations.
"chef's kiss" - I'd very much like to kiss the chef ;-) (I know he's married and a cat person...)
@@hennie_booboo And he's gorgeous, too!!!!!!! Quite the package!!!!!!!🥰🥰💖💖
Mwah... So important that you gave a kiss. Your kiss is so worthy. I highly doubt it.
Thank you so much for this recipe and history!
My mother was from India, my father from Germany, so I grew up on this (and many other) types of food.
My father greatly enjoyed Indian food. He used to joke that Jalebi reminded him of the appearance of Malayalam script, which is very much based on curved shapes, as it was written traditionally on leaves that would tear if you drew a straight line in the wrong direction.
My mother was not a person very interested in food, so my father taught himself Indian cooking. (Thank you, Madhur Jaffrey!)
After my parents divorced, my father remarried to a German woman, nearly exactly his own age, and introduced her to Indian food, which she very much enjoyed.
While it is not historical and suitable for this channel, I recommend Madhur Jaffery's recipe for lamb and spinach curry. It was my father's go-to dish for introducing people to Indian food. People who had never liked lamb before liked it. People who never liked spinach before liked it. People who never liked curry before liked it. People who said they'd never liked lamb, spinach OR curry before liked it. When the blog "The Great Big Vegetable Challenge" (aimed at getting a child unwilling to try vegetables open to new options) reached "S is for Spinach" I recommended it, and the dish was a hit.
My father developed dementia and had to be in a nursing home since 2018, and COVID got him in early 2021. (After he was eligible for a vaccine, but when the distribution was so messed up he never had a chance.) You brought back profound memories for me.
I'm so sorry about your father. He sounds amazing.
I love that joke about the Malayalam script; that's so true.
I'm so sorry for your loss. Your father sounds so likeable! May your memories of him continue to bless you ♡
I don’t like lamb or curry, but spinach is tasty. It would be amazing if I found a lamb curry that I could eat, because the rest of my family likes it a lot.
Thank you for your remembrance of your father. He sounds like a wonderful man.
Fun fact There's a softer version of Jalebi in west bengal and Bangladesh that's called "chenar jilabi" which mostly consists of milk curd and soaked in syrup, man it's such a delight to eat it fresh and warm
I've had those. They were amazing
Ive tried this!
ooh, sounds good
Oh yeah .... anyday it beats common jalebi. And we Bengalis call it "jilipi" ......
That sounds so good!
Your ability to say words w/ the correct accents and dialects is amazing. You've done everything from Swedish to Chinese and everybody comments on how you say the words correct. Well done.
So true, his pronunciation was all on point !!!
Not really but it is a good effort
If you don't have a candy thermometer or you're at a high altitude and the temps never work out for you (rule of thumb: subtract 2° for every 1000ft above sea level), you can use the cold water test. 230° is the thread stage at sea level, so when the syrup is dropped into ice cold water, it will form threads.
Thank you!
Beat me to it! (c'mon Max, explain WHY it's called thread vs. hard ball!)
Thanks for the description for those who may not have a candy thermometer on hand or live above sea level (my biggest issue with all cook books, "bake at" never covers altitude or oven whose settings are... "varied")
If you search for it there is a way to calibrate your thermometer to your altitude. It is basically boiling a specific amount of water and marking the thermometer when it hits a full boil. Like if the water is at a full boil but the thermometer only says 98⁰C/208⁰F you know that is the low boil then you boil it for so many minutes per meters/feet above sea level and then mark it again for your high boil. I think?
It has been a long time since I read that and did my own.
@@nikkiewhite476 I've tried that in the past but might not have done it right. Cold water test works great for me so I just use the thermometer for general reference lol
I'm a Sihk, I've been looking forward to an episode about Jalebi forever! I'm so happy you included a little mention of Sihk history!! When you tackle Indian sweets again, maybe do Gulab Jamun? A little fried dough ball soaked in syrup. I'll be honest and say I don't know if it has an interesting history, but it's a super nostalgic favourite of my family. Happy Diwali to you, Max!
Oh man gulab jamun is so decadent.
Or mootichoor ladoo… mmm!
😆You are a Sikh, but doesn't know how Sikh or Gulab Jamun is spelled? 😅😂🤣 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikhs
@@johnsilva5020 Typos?
@@johnsilva5020 Simple autocorrect typo 😁 Don't let mockery be your first resort to seeing mistakes, love and guide others
Thank you so much for doing this Max! Diwali means so much to me as an Indian and this is the first time that I won’t get to celebrate with my family. Appreciate all the joy and knowledge you bring!
This internet stranger wishes you a bright and happy Diwali!
I wish you a bright and joyous Diwali!
A bright and blessed Diwali to you. May your light never grow dim.
I'm sorry you won't get to be with your family, but I hope you can still enjoy the celebrations. All the best to you and your family.
I am gonna celebrate diwali alone as well after a very long time.. certainly will be a very uneasy day.
For maximizing the use of Saffron I recommend grinding it into a powder with a little bit of sugar using a mortar and pestle, then adding the water. It's what they do in Iran and it allows you to use half the quantity for the same color and flavor. Saffron isn't cheap after all.
"so if you find yourself on the roads to Bengal.... in the 1860s..." ROFL! This is why I love you, Max. History mixed with comedy and good eats, to boot!
To be honest, the opium and bhang coating didn't sound too bad, but I draw the line at datura.
@@annalieff-saxby568 I was thinking the same thing 🤣🤣
I absolutely love jalebi. I am a South African, from Durban, and the first time I tried it was in 4th grade when we were doing a culture week. I fell in love with it, then and there. I've always likened it to another South African sweet called koeksisters which is also a fried dough soaked in a syrup
Would that be Boere koeksisters or Muslim koeksisters? I love both.
@@christakriel3632 I also love both but the ones I eat more often are the boere koeksisters. They're easier to find when you especially when you have afrikaans family friends
@@feathertouchasmr I live in Cape Town and the Muslim ones are quite easy to find as most take-away places sell lovely fresh ones. But I also l9ve both.
It's so lovely to see more and more food diversity. Diwali is a holiday I wish I knew more about.
With over 4000 years of food history, it's unlikely that Matt is gonna ever run out of choices.
@@goukeban6197 *Max, oh absolutely. But it's always nice to see more foods from around the world. Celebrating the diversity of history and food.
Diversity is the only attribute that matters
ua-cam.com/video/3xnrbzfOiYE/v-deo.html
“Diversity is a strength…”
Read the Ramayana!
Diwali is the best holiday and I'd love to see more people adopt it. I lived in an apartment building that had a large number of Nepalese living there, and they put on a great Diwali every year. Five days of absolute joy.
Thank you Max for the education. Now I finally know the actual name of Diwali. The plant I work at has a majority of its night shift workers coming from Nepal. We'd have nights around this time that we'd essentially shut down because the workforce all called out. They'd all say it was "festival" (English proficiency varies, but the company sponsors classes). Now, I actually know the holiday and a possible treat to bring in.
Dude if you brought Jalabi in to celebrate…you would be a hero. They are so good.
There are a lot of different names for the festival, though a lot of them are similar. I enjoyed learning more about it with this video.
I just love how you actually make an effort to not only not butcher other languages pronunciation, but to actually do it as correctly as possible.
Respect.
Here’s another parallel:
“Jalebi” almost sounds like “zeppoli”, which is fried dough that is then sweetened; traditionally served at midnight on Christmas Eve when the Christian world welcome in “the Light”. (an adaptation of Saturnalia, also welcoming the return of light when days get longer after the winter solstice). . . . and I always thought zeppoli were adopted from Jewish potato Latkes, as they are a fried food celebrating the oil lamps lasting 8 days of Hanukkah, also a feast of light.
Hmmm. So many parallels can be drawn!!
Great episode!
I am half Indian. I loved celebrating Holi and Diwali with my dad. He was not religious, but we enjoyed the cultural aspect of celebrations. I know now that he just never taught us the religious part because there are just soooo many differences (even within just one country!)!
Even if it has been a year. If you're still reading this.. Do you know from which region of India your father came from?
Kolkata! @@ritikshaw5868
Another Bengali
Great video, Max! Looks delicious.
It's really cool that you took time to mention Ziryab. I heard about him before and how he was kind of the world's first rock star in a way.
He was so influential. I had no idea! His technique can still be see in flamenco!
@@TastingHistory Yep, Ziryab is very well known in the Arab world, especially in the western part (around Morocco) due to the influence of Al-Andalus on North Africa.
@@TastingHistory You should watch the Puppet History video about him!
@@coley4242 2 months late to the party but I have to endorse this endorsement of Puppet History on Watcher. When Max mentioned Ziryab, I immediately thought "I know that guy! He's the ancient rock star The Professor taught us about! His lute sang us a trippy song!"
I was really happy to see this. I'm from Kenya, and there is a lot of Indian influence there. Luckily, Jalebi are one of them. So good. I'm going to try making this for my Christmas party this year.
This is one of my mothers favourite indian sweets. She would make it whenever she was feeling down.
@@judeirwin2222 If you understood what they meant then there is no harm. Your high horse is giving you hypoxia.
@@judeirwin2222 You're not wrong about my mistake, but you are taking this rather seriously. It's one dropped apostrophe. It's not going to cause English to collapse.
It's a nice autumn day. Go have a walk and look at some clouds.
Both my parents are Iranian so I grew up eating these and love them so much.
I had no idea so many other people around the world also had their versions too! This was really neat to watch! Thank you!
I think the best description for the texture would be the 'ribbon' stage? Where it flows easily but holds it's shape for a moment before 'melting' back into the rest of the batter? Another wonderful episode and a delightful dish! I always love your deep dives, I'll have to try making these!
@@judeirwin2222 I'll be sure to pass that along to my autocorrect. 🤣
Diwali/ Deepavali was originally similar to Halloween. The lamps are supposed to lit the path to the Realm of Ancestors for souls who came to the Earth to take oblations, on the earlier month.
Later it got associated with divinities- in North India as return of Rama, in South India with slaying of Demon Naraka, in East India with Kalipuja, in West India with New Year. But Lakshmi (goddess of wealth & prosperity) Puja is common as it is the harvest season.
Happy Diwali!
@@gwennorthcutt421 I've seen candles lit in church on All Saints' Day for the beloved dead, and I suppose jack-o'-lanterns are a secular remnant. I think Dia de Los Muertos has candles, too.
Those look yummy. Your presentation is spot on. Your endorsement of: "I can't eat them all. But I might eat them all" is precious.
Was wondering how Chimchar was going to make his way into the episode. Oh! And I just got how perfect the selection is, as he's fire type.
Happy anniversary to you both! I have been enjoying Hawaiian PoGo postcards.
Chimchar is featured on Pokemon Go for Diwali. They have a Festival of Lights special event every year.
I named my Chimchar Hanuman when the game first came out.
@@cygnata There's a joke about HanuMAN being the originalest superhero.
ohh, this is zoolbia! It's a persian dish that we usually eat at nowruz (persian new year) to mark the beginning of spring. i had no idea it was something present in other cultures, thats super cool
I cannot express how informative your histories are. It simplifies so many complex ideas as you distill the essence. Your notifications are always my favorite. At first I thought you were a professor since you research your subjects so throughly.
I had a version somewhere in Morocco - it was a hectic whirlwind seven day trip to six cities, so in my recollection it is a jet-lagged mess of a recollection - that was made with millet flour and flavored with orange blossom water called "slabi" or something close to that, but was still recognizably jalebi. On another trip, this time to Egypt, I was served mushabak that were blood red (almost like a red velvet cake color) sweetened with honey and ginger topped by sesame seeds, which - until seeing this video - I would have thought a separate dish, but now I know better. My son to this day still calls them "African funnel cake".
Excellent summary of Diwali! Where I live there is a MASSIVE Sikh population, and Diwali is usually celebrated mostly concurrent with Hallow'een by that community. With lots and LOTS of fireworks, usually driving my dog insane with fear at the explosions. Jalebi are available year-round at the multitude of Indian 'sweet shops' in the 'Punjabi Market' area and other high Sikh population areas and are generally sweeter and simplified compared to the more complex one you made, being made of thinner dough and so soaked with syrup that you can literally bite the end off of one and pour syrup out of it like a bottle of the stuff ;-) That said they are still enjoyable to eat but you just can't eat too many in a row. My kids adore them. Great video!
Yep, when Max bit into that Jalebi I thought to myself "bloody hell you overcooked that" but I realise it's a different recipe lol!
I have Sikh family so I'm used to taking part in Diwali and I'd quite often get treated to Indian sweets as we always called them, or mithai/halwa which is the actual name. My favourites are still Ladoo, but they're all so good! Jalebi always was a family favourite. They are exactly like how you described, a chewy/crunchy spiralled roll filled with sticky syrup.
I'm looking forward to having a quiet warm night on monday and sending wishes to family and friends, Diwali really is a beautiful occasion. I always loved it more than Christmas or birthdays or any western holiday really. Because there's no "YOU DIDN'T GET THE RIGHT PRESENT!" it's just delicious food, candles, bright colours, and expressions of love and support.
@@Megan-ii4gf There are a LOT of really tasty Indian sweets all right! My personal fave is cashew barfi, even though the name makes most other white people giggle when they hear it.
I like the concept and history of Diwali too, I just wish there were less fireworks being set off in every back yard for multiple nights on end. I don't know if that's just the Greater Vancouver area's Sikh population that does the fireworks thing or it's worldwide, but it's torture on my poor old dog who has never gotten used to it in the whole 12 years of her life. She'll bark, howl, pee on the floor and in general just be miserable. She must have more sensitive hearing then most because she has gotten used to many other strange things easily, but never the BOOM! of fireworks.
By the way, Max, if you want to mimic the color of saffron without using food coloring, then get some Bijol. This is a product you'll find at Latin markets. It's a powder that gets its color and flavor from annatto, and it's not anywhere near as expensive as saffron. My mother always uses it when she makes _paella._ It comes in little 1-oz tins or in a larger jar, and I highly recommend it for anyone who wants that golden color but can't afford the expensive spice. :)
Heck yeah Max!!!! Literally was making jalebis for pre-diwali right now and saw your video notification. I did squeal a little and I am absolutely not embarrassed about it.
Can we take a moment and appreciate Max's pronunciation of all the non English words in each video
He does such a good job! You can tell he's a trained singer, learning to pronounce things in languages you don't know is part of the training, and he practically sings every unfamiliar word.
@@Halum11 Would you rather he not try at all and butcher them? Tell me which one's more disrespectful.
@@uleubner OMG!!! I already love you and this series---would LOVE love LOVE to hear you sing!!!!!!!🥰🥰💖💖🎵🎵🎶🎶
thanks for covering Jhilapi, as it's called in Bangladesh, it's a staple here in sweet shops but also it's all the rage during Ramadan, there are so many variants of it, it's amazing. I would definitely recommend that you try out more Sub Continental recipes :)
strange, in West Bengal it's moreso pronounced as Jhilibi
It's probably just a regional language thing.
Bangal ra jilapi bole ar ghoti ra jilipi bole.
@@bodhijitbiswas6282 in tripura we call it zilabi
I live in Leicester in the UK and our city has a huge Diwali celebration every year. Even as a kid I used to look forward to this time of year because of the samosas and Indian sweets. I always remember the samosas and pakora being served at our Bonfire Night celebration when I was at primary school and to this day I still make a batch of samosas every November 5th because of that! Talk about cultural fusion
I’m usually pretty hesitant of any recipe using rose water (it can be a strong taste) but those look SO good! Fried desserts are the best 😊
I'd rosewater the batter the first time and omit it from the syrup until I was certain the flavor wasn't too strong.
You can go way overboard with cardamom, too. I have a recipe for cardamom cookies that uses one eighth of a teaspoon of powdered cardamom for the entire batch. It's plenty. (They're delicious.)
Suggestion from my Persian relatives: grind up the saffron threads with some of the sugar in a mortar & pestle until it's a fine-ish powder before adding to the mix. You get more out of your saffron that way.
"Opium, bhang, and datura" sounds like a typical weekend in my ill-spent 20s... 😏 Thank gods I've matured since then.
Using Pansear to stand in for Hanuman is quite clever, Max. And what a beautiful holiday!
And how cool is it that the author troubleshoots the recipe for us!
That's not pansear, its Chimchar.
@@KyleOgilvie1 you are absolutely right. Thank you
I love reading the comments on these videos, because I get a sort of second-hand joy from seeing other cultures' food and history being talked about and made in a respectful manner. Max, you definitely take pains to get it right, and based off all these nice comments, it is not in vain.
I first had Jalebi at a local Indian restaurant in Northern Virginia and I fell in love. Though what I've had is less crunchy and more like a wet & sticky funnel cake. I think I described them to someone as "delicious resin."
I haven't made them in years, and lately I've been thinking about giving it a try again. I think seeing this video has tipped me over the edge on doing it, maybe for Thanksgiving.
Delicious resin is a fantastic description of it.
The dessert looks yummy, the festival and history really fascinating, but the biggest surprise really is how detailed is the recipe: it sounds like something that might have been written today!
My favourite use of cardamom is cracking open a few pods and throwing it into a "alfredo" sauce that's heating up to infuse it with cardamom. Surprisingly works really well.
Once again -- "sweet fried dough" appears to be a universal human experience.
I do love that the recipe appears to be written for someone who has never had this before, so they can tell whether they did it right by description!
Max, the joy on your face when you bit into the jalebi was precious! :) This was a really cool one- I did not expect it to be so crispy!!
Diwali is my favourite holiday that I've had the pleasure to share in. I'll never forget one year where we had a gathering, with singing and dancing, and we torched the prairie restoration that my friend worked on (in central Wisconsin). Magical!
I am literally having jalebi right now! So happy to get this video. What a great gift Max!
I've been benefited by Max's well-thought researches and memorable delivery. He clearly is someone opens to everyone's voice from all cultural background. He listens to variety of inputs and pays equal attention regardless his own familiarity. I think this dedication earned him the popularity. I've gained awareness of cultures I usually had no familiarity through this channel. Examples will be the Babylonian, Brazillian, the Mughal Indian, the Volga German, etc. from previous videos. Keep up the good work.
I really enjoyed the history in this week's episode. Feels like there's some symbolism/religious significance to the spiral shape that you keep unbroken when making these.
one of my happiest childhood memories was visiting the local indian sweet shop. I remember my mother lifting me up to watch the chef as he made fresh jalebi. He piped a ferfect pattern into the hot oil, then dipped the fried disc of batter into syrup, then straight into the box just for me to take home. 😍
I called it by this indian sweet by its persian name, zoolbia, as my father is persian, but the persian version I learned later in life is more like a mexican churro dipped in rose syrup.
love that you went into all the different ways Diwali is celebrated. great video!
I adore that you put obvious effort into properly pronouncing all of the words and names that are new to your lexicon. For one, it's fun to listen to new words, and for two, it demonstrates your respect for the new people, places, and other things that you're learning about and teaching us about.
Yessss I love to see this! We have a predominantly Indian neighborhood and right now they are celebrating Diwali and I love to learn more about their culture ☺️
I don't usually comment on anything on line. However I just wanted to let you know that, your videos are an inspiration for me. I manage a state park's restaurant in Tennessee, watching these and listening to them give me the creative spark I need to try out new and exciting recipes. Thank you.
Max's jalebi looks beautiful. My other grandma said "not bad for first timer"
Happy Deepavali Valthukal, Max🙏
In Iran we call this dessert Zoolbia, which is usually made larger than Bamieh, which is exactly the same dessert but instead of a lattice shaped it is turned into small ovals but made the same way. In Iran it is almost always sold together. I hope you make more delicious from Persian Empire, or a Persian food.
I had a fresh-off-the boat supervisor from India a few years ago that used to describe something as "all jalebi" when the situation was effed up beyond all recognition. They didn't believe me when I pointed out that we have our own version, funnel cake.
I absolutely ADORE this history/food channel---SO informative with great stories mixed in with wry humor!!!!! But I gotta admit that one of the reasons I watch is because Max is SO EASY on the eyes!!!!!!! A joy to watch!!!!!💖💖🥰🥰✌✌
I’m really amazed at the amount of detail included in the historic recipe.
I got to go to India for work a couple times and Jalebi was the single best dessert I had while there. When I went back the second time that was one of the things my coworkers who had gone previously were most jealous of.
शुभ दीवाली
Jalebi to Zalabyia
From the book of dishes
Excellent standard
In it's recording and writing
The auspicious festival of lights
Provides a place of ceremony
Where eating by the row of lights
Bringing together people every year
The dish, the holiday, stories
Differ by the millennium
Change by the decade
True eternal things
Are subject to change
The purity of observance
Community and family
Will keep it alight and warm
Every year, to this day
Thank you Max for the good memories! My mother's family lived in India during the Raj, and my grandmother made Jalebi for my brother and me.
This is great. Please do a video for "shawarma" next. I grew up in the Middle East, and the history of Middle Eastern cuisine has always fascinated me.
The new Mean Comments video sent me here. My dad grew up in India (American born abroad, not Indian himself), and he loved Jalebi more than anything in the world. On a visit to India, 50 years after leaving, he ate himself sick on them.
Same, lol!
U should look into Mulukhiyah, an ancient Egyptian dish that’s still eaten today and is considered the national dish of Egypt!
I’ll get it on the list!
@@TastingHistory in North Africa (Tunisia) we use beef, ideally fatty pieces to make it like a strong soup, we also enjoy Zlabia particularly during Ramadan!
The music you put on when you start to eat your different dishes is so amazing. So appropriate for each food. 👏 😋
Great episode. Also, as a Vite Ramen fan, I can attest - they're delicious! Grocery store ramen, you eat the pack, and get hungry 2 hours later. Vite Ramen sticks with you as well as being WAY more tasty than grocery store varieties. Its a bit spendy, but WORTH IT!
Still to this day, I see the "Zalabia" still being sold in Iraq (Baghdad) with Baklava, very delicious with tea! Thanks for sharing.
Happy Deepavali Max!! Thanks so much for this episode! In South India, we call this as Jahangiri ( made with all purpose flour fermented with curd). What we call Jalebi is made of dehusked black gram soaked and ground into a fluffy white batter. This fluffy unfermented is used and piped in the oil and dunked in saffron colored sugar syrup.
During this festive season these soft juicy freshly made jalebis sell as fast as they are made.
My childhood memories of Diwali are about the fat male chef and his 2 female helpers who would work the whole night in our large garage, making thousands of jalebis and other sweets and savouries. These, we would distribute to friends and relatives and store the less perishable savouries for many months and snack on them. Back then we never knew the word ‘dieting’ so the whole family would love eating all these ghee rich sweets.
Thanks again Max for making me relive these memories ❤
I love this channel. It´s just Chris Evans enjoying old food recipes.
Thats generous haha
@@TastingHistory Could you imagine if it were really him, though? ;)
Oh wow, your timing is magical Max. I was just recently looking for an authentic historical recipe for Jalebi. I ran across it playing "Cook, Serve, Delicious!" lol, and thought, what is THIS?! And here you are. I feel like it's Christmas.
dude u nailed it. everything is great about this video. esp the research uve put in to this
Wow the original recepie is soo detailed! I mean they provide ideas how to fix it if it does not turn out like expected - like what!? That is amazing! Plus thesd ones look so good - that crunch!
Zlabia is made in north Africa too (mostly Algeria) with many versions existing like the zlabia made from semolina in the eastern regions of the country. This dessert is mostly present and made during the holy month of Ramadan, usually served with tea. As for its origin, many say it was made in Andalusia by mistake by a cook who inadvertently dropped some dough in hot oil and said : "Zala biya" which roughly translates to "I messed it up".
In any way, I really enjoy all of your content and admire the amount of work you put in every video you post !
In sanskrit/hindi there is no native "z" sound. Instead you just add a dot under the letter "ja" (ज > ज़) (this is done for all non-native sounds included in Hindi/sanskrit) which would explain why it would become jalebi (in sanskrit it also would have been jalebiya I believe because there is an assumed अ at the end of words).
jelebi is a Persian dish it came from ancient persia not from middle east but it came to India and people like it and people use to eat it
My favorite part of the video was to learn about how other communities celebrate the day of Diwali...n how vastly the Jalebi is spread acrossthe world....really love it😍😍❤❤👍👍💕💕😇😇
What great timing! I'm running sound for a Diwali celebration this weekend. Awesome to have some background knowledge of the history before going in.
Good luck!
On the subject of the Ramayana, I can recommend Sita Sings the Blues, an interesting animated take on certain sections of the story.
I'm a big fan of American funnel cake, so this, a flavored batter fried and dunked in a flavored syrup, sounds really good!
Fried, sugared dough could unite the whole world! I don't usually add a comment but I do need to say that your presence, combined with the actual content is a winning combination. Thank you.
this is very interesting, we do have it in Tunisia (we call it zlebya) but i've always thought it is originally from india, because of the technique with which it's fried.
Fun fact re: cleaning products... Bagels and pretzels often involve a dip in lye water. That's why they have a shiny brown crust that's different from other breads.
And in the opposite direction, vinegar is super useful for cleaning.
Jalebi is the most well loved Indian sweet ever alongside rosogolla 😊
I'd say gulab jamun is more popular than rosogulla but to each their own.
@@nobetawedielikemysanity you are not wrong, but as i said well loved. Even in west bengal gulab jamun is equally popular however i mentioned well loved which means everyone who has had it will always go back for more.
@Soviet Union i can't accept the fact as the case is still going on 😁 whatever comes off rosogolla is their. Regardless most Indians and non Indians associate it with west bengal irrespective of what the court finally decides.
Can I put in a word for rasmalai? And those wonderful green milk sweet squares with pistachios on top? And the wonderful crunchy one that's like "honeycomb" but better?
Sorry, I don't know their names because I only buy them by pointing.
We can't ever talk about any sweet in India without that one person who would shoehorn in a Roshogolla. This video is about Jalebi Mimi, let's talk about that.
This was wonderful to watch, Max! I thoroughly enjoyed it. Thanks to your videos, I end up cooking and eating more homefood while listening to you speak.
Some points for non-Indian viewers:
1. If you're going to use camphor, please use edible camphor. There is a difference. I'm not sure on the availability of the edible one in other countries.
2. Jalebi is eaten as a breakfast dish with yogurt or milk in some parts of India
3. Diwali is still celebrated now in the exact way it was described in all those historical accounts
4. For you Max - Let the pieces break if they do. It's fun to smuggle out the smaller pieces from a serving plate to justify that you're not eating too many sweets ;)
Happy Diwali Max bhaiyaa !
Bhaiya is brother in hindi :)
I have always loved watching your videos and this one was a great surprise, since this dish is very much ingrained into our festivals not just diwali but many more !
My grandmother use to make these during Diwali and all the kids ate the left over sugar. Really good job on pronunciation. She always told us the story of Rama while making these but thanks for adding context and origin of Jalebi.
this reminds me a lot of korean 약과 (yakgwa) cakes, its a fried cookie soaked in honey/gingery syrup :) They are usually for Chuseok (Korean thanksgiving) but they are served at other fancy occasions because they are very good.
It really makes me feel connected in a sense to ancient people to know they really weren't much different than people today and that people from an entirely different culture, again, weren't really that different from me. The way the recipe was written, with exactness, and then gives a description on what it should and shouldn't taste like means this person was not only meticulous but very aware that people not from his time period or his culture would be reading it some day. The awareness that there are worlds out there on earth other than your own is hard for people to understand today, even with the internet, so for someone in a small corner of the world with no idea many countries and continents even existed to show awareness that not everyone shares the same background as they do is mind blowing.
OMG OMG OMG OMG A new episode and that too with Jalebi which I love ❤️
Thank you, Max! Although in Bengali, we call it ‘Jilipi’.
16:55 your eyes lit up like a kid at Christmas. That was nice to see.