You might smack wet your lips when hear the word
‘Chikki’. Let alone the chimera of hills, dams and nature bounties, Chikki
compels you to recall sugar-coated groundnuts that does wonder to your taste
buds. A trip to Lonavala is never complete without stuffing bags with few kilos
of Chikki — the signature dish of Lonavala. Chomping a bite of Chikki just
bought from some seller is not all about the confection. Chikki, the roasted
groundnut confection, is available in 30 makes and combo of different recipes
across the length and breadth of Lonavala.
As a new
entrant to Lonavala shopping for Chikki need good knowledge of right places to
buy from, sound acquaintance of its varieties, brands and quality. Giving into
the taste and tact of Chikki sellers is easy than buying right quality from
right place. A trend among visitors is to get guided by billboards and banner
hanging overhead, but these are not a big help rather bombardment of
advertisements for the product.
Chikki
ingredients and varieties
Before you
barge in some shop to lay hands on the emblematic concoction of Lonavala make
sure you know all about the dish. Chikki is prepared with jaggery, sugar syrup,
groundnuts and cashews (optional). However, this is a basic preparatory method
and over the years there developed several varieties cooked with many more
ingredients and in several tastes. Unlike jams and jellies tasting Chikki
before buying is not so common here, so one will have to depend upon the word
of mouth or trusted old shops known to be the masters in trade. Or,
alternatively, make a choice out of preferences suchlike chana, kesar, pista,
badam, coconut, rajgira, kurmura, til (linseed), dry fruits and combination of
all these. Ginger, honey, mint and peanut crushes are some scrummy innovations
that add to the existing choice. Scouting Lonavala further and you are
bound you come across fruity avatar of Chikki available in all new taste of
strawberry, mango and chocolate. An even newer version for health freaks are
the sugar-free Chikkies which are low in calorie count and prepared to serve
the non-sugar customers.
Lonavala
has a whole industry that specializes in Chikki but there are
specific places where you can get to taste the real Chikki in its purest form.
A range of 30-40 brands makes the choice difficult but few trusted quality and
tastes that can be bulk-shopped are Maganlal, National and A-1. Well, these do
not set rule-of-thumb in the buying business and there are many others makers
that promise you even better flavour. Some of the brands that have history of
freshness and taste can be rightly purchased from National, Maganlal, Rupam,
Navratna, Mahavir, Raval, Super, Vaishali, Mangal, Panchratna, Coopers,
National Chikki Mart.
Chikki
that taste...
... crisp and not soft is said to better
quality. Chikki buffs ask you to mandatorily perform a colour check for the
chikki; a light brown suggests moderate use of jaggery and a darker tinge is a
compromise with taste. Similarly, poor or inexpensive quality misses out dry
fruit coatings or layered cake that adds to the taste of concoctions. Beware of
the old stuff that smells stale an impure. The minimum price bids at Rs 80 per
kg to Rs 200. Bargaining is not that big a option but taste is, so discounts
are available just on bulk purchases!
