Ladykeni

A handful of my pals were invited to my nephew's son's "Annaprashan," also known as the first rice-eating ceremony. Following the ceremony, we all enjoyed a lavish dinner. Banana leaves were used to serve the meal. Dal and fish curries came first, then a variety of veggie fries and fish fries. There were several fish delights, such as rahu kaliya and mustard fish, among many others.

Lastly the sweets were served. There were different types of sweets and ‘Ladykini’ was extremely popular. My friends who were not Bengali found this interesting and they asked me, ‘This sweet looks like Gulab Jamun and you call it Ladykini?’

I pulled my chair and told them an interesting story. In the year 1856, Charles Canning, had come to Calcutta as the Governor-General of India and his wife Lady Canning, had tasted the sweet. She was touched and fell in love with the brown round syrupy dessert. The ingredients are a bit different than the Gulab Jamun. It is made of chenna and flour moulds fried in ghee and then soaked in sugar syrup. So, this sweet was named after Lady Canning. Lady Canning's sweet later became, ‘Ladykeni’.

Everyone had a good laugh and enjoyed the sweet and highly praised it.