jamun

Indian sweets like the immaculate barfi (condensed milk squares), kulfi (sweet, creamy traditional Indian ice cream) and the delectable gulab jamun (fried dough balls swimming in rosewater syrup) could all be after-dinner favorites for an Indian gastrodiplomacy campaign.

Paul Rockower: Indian Gastrodiplomacy to Help Feed Perceptions of an Emergent India Paul Rockower 2011

Indian sweets like the immaculate barfi (condensed milk squares), kulfi (sweet, creamy traditional Indian ice cream) and the delectable gulab jamun (fried dough balls swimming in rosewater syrup) could all be after-dinner favorites for an Indian gastrodiplomacy campaign.

Paul Rockower: Indian Gastrodiplomacy to Help Feed Perceptions of an Emergent India Paul Rockower 2011

The colours can seem vulgar, the sugar content too high for uninitiated palates – just two little balls of my favourite, gulab jamun (a fried sweet of milky dough bathed in syrup) can be as much as 380 calories.

How to make Indian sweets Homa Khaleeli 2010

Indian sweets like the immaculate barfi (condensed milk squares), kulfi (sweet, creamy traditional Indian ice cream) and the delectable gulab jamun (fried dough balls swimming in rosewater syrup) could all be after-dinner favorites for an Indian gastrodiplomacy campaign.

Paul Rockower: Indian Gastrodiplomacy to Help Feed Perceptions of an Emergent India Paul Rockower 2011

And especially if you've never had them before, especially if you don't think you can stuff another morsel of food down your gullet, get the gulab jamun.

Sheila Marikar: Tamarind Tribeca: The Indian Foodie's Mecca 2010

Both are fantastic: the two gulab jamun simultaneously syrupy, warm and delicately doughy, as if an Indian auntie tended to them for hours, sweating over the stove.

Sheila Marikar: Tamarind Tribeca: The Indian Foodie's Mecca 2010

It does, however, subject me to a troop of monkeys that reside in a jamun tree overhanging the balcony.

Hrishikesh Srinagesh: Anatomy of Rishi Valley 2010

Gulab jamun is ordered, as is the coconut-mousse bombe.

Sheila Marikar: Tamarind Tribeca: The Indian Foodie's Mecca 2010

It does, however, subject me to a troop of monkeys that reside in a jamun tree overhanging the balcony.

Hrishikesh Srinagesh: Anatomy of Rishi Valley 2010

The coconut-mousse bombe: Silly name aside, it is, in fact, the bomb -- a cloud-like concoction of coconut essence around a sphere of semi-sweet chocolate, plated atop wafer-thin pineapple slices, nuzzled against a grown up version of gulab jamun -- a doughnut-like pillow of a cake, sans the sweet sauce.

Sheila Marikar: Tamarind Tribeca: The Indian Foodie's Mecca 2010