Polydish city guide
Best Chikki in New York
“Jaggery and nuts shatter into brittle—called chikki in Maharashtra, gajak in the north, kadala mittai in the south.”
What the real thing tastes like
Chikki is a traditional Indian sweet (brittle) generally made from nuts and jaggery/sugar. There are several different varieties of chikki in addition to the most common groundnut (peanut) chikki. Each variety of chikki is named after the ingredients used, which include puffed or roasted Bengal gram, sesame, puffed rice, beaten rice, or khobra (desiccated coconut), and other nuts such as almonds, cashews and pistachios. In Sindh province of Pakistan, it is called layee or lai. In north Indian states, it is also known as gajak or maroonda. In Bangladesh, West Bengal and other Bengali-speaking regions, it is known as gur badam.In Maharashtra it is called as Chikki. In Kashmir it's known as Patti.In the South Indian states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, it is called palli patti (పల్లీ పట్టీ). In Kerala it is called kadala mittai; in Tamil Nadu, kadalai mittai; in Karnataka kadale Mittai. Similar dishes are also very popular in Brazil, where it is known as pé de moleque, in Paraguay, w
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Chikki is a shattering, golden-brown brittle where jaggery or sugar hardens around whatever treasures you fold into it—peanuts most commonly, but also sesame seeds, roasted chickpeas, coconut, or almonds. Across India it travels under different names: gajak in the north, palli patti in Andhra Pradesh, kadala mittai in Kerala, each region claiming its own version of this crisp, tooth-breaking sweet. The formula stays constant: nuts and grain meet heat and sugar until they snap into irregular shards that dissolve on your tongue.
Order it here when it has
- multiple nut and grain varieties
- known across South Asia and diaspora communities
- named distinctly in each region
Walk away when you see
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