Polydish city guide
Best Adhirasam in New York
“A fried sweet spanning five Indian cuisines, shaped like a doughnut but sweet, not savory—rice, jaggery, and cardamom.”
What the real thing tastes like
Adhirasam, attarasalu, (Tamil: அதிரசம்), kajjaya or athrasa in Kannada (Kannada: ಅತ್ರಾಸ), ariselu in Telugu (Telugu: అరిసెలు), anarasa in Marathi, Airsa in Chhattisgarhi or Arisa pitha in Odia is a type of Indian sweet made out of rice, jaggery, ghee and sometimes coconut and with spices like cardamom, sesame, pepper and ginger powder from Tamil cuisine, Karnataka cuisine, Telugu cuisine, Marathi cuisine and Odia cuisine. The doughnut-like fried dough has a long history of popularity in Kannada, Telugu, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, and Tamil civilization. They are similar in shape to vada, but are not savoury and are eaten as a sweet. Adhirasam is a popular as an offering to the relatives during Deepavali and Ganesha Chaturthi festivals, both at home and in temples in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.
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Adhirasam is a fried sweet that spans five Indian cuisines—Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Marathi, and Odia—each calling it by a different name, each claiming it as their own. Rice and jaggery meet ghee in the bowl, cardamom and sesame in the spices, all shaped into doughnut-like rounds and fried until golden. During Deepavali and Ganesha Chaturthi, these are pressed into the hands of relatives and laid before temple gods across Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, a festival sweet with centuries behind it.
Order it here when it has
- long history of popularity
- multi-regional significance
- aromatic spices
- sacred offering
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