Delicious

We were discussing the famed Coastal Andhra sweet Pootharekulu, also commonly known as Paper Sweet, which I had misunderstood as Pepper sweet. Pootharekulu is a sweet which originated in the town of Atreyapuram in East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh a long long time back. The word Pootharekulu is made of two different words – Pootha which means coating and Reku which means sheet. Muthu certainly had me intrigued and I inquired about it as soon as I reached my weekend home, and learnt who I had misunderstood the term Paper was lost in translation and I assumed Pootharekulu to be a spicy dessert!

This, however, was least of my concerns as all I wanted to do was eat it soon and so dutifully ordered it along with my meal. The property manager was touched that I wanted to eat this local delicacy, but regretfully informed me that the cook at the hotel couldn’t possibly make it and it can only be had in a village home or a village sweet-shop. This little piece of news devastated me but I wasn’t ready to go back from East Godavari, the birthplace of Pootharekulu, without tasting it. I hatched a plan with may driver who promised to take me to a village where the women made it, but for that I needed to leave the hotel at the break