To me one of my favourite sweets
Amongst the very many varieties of halwas the king or queen shuld be the famous Thirunelveli Halwa .
Strangely this epic sweet originated in this hot Tamilnadu town all because of a north Indian Rajasthani settler .
In 1882 Jegan Singh one of the many settlers and business men of Tamilnadu went to his home town for a holiday .
When he returned he brought back a cook who amongst other Rajasthani food could cook an excellent Halwa and Jegan singh just loved it .
He started a small shop in the center of town with wooden shutters ill lit and mostly open in dusk to sell this Halwa .
They say it still hasva 40 watt bulb !
Slowly people started liking it so much the sweet even got Thirunelveli as its name tag
Other shops too started selling with thier names and some like Shanthi sweets became popular too but not like the iconic irruttukada .
The very fact wheat is used for this halwa tells us its not a local delicacy in the predominantely rice eating region .
The wheat is cleaned in the pure waters of Thamarapani several times and allowed to settle down before its skimmed husk seperated and boiled
Sugar and plenty of ghee and other flavours added till it drips with ghee and tastes delicious .
The irrutkada or dark shop still continues to be so managed by the same family even today .
I used to know a family coming from Thirunelveli to Cochin for treatment in my hospital and they will bring this halwa faithfully every time for me .
I had one of the best Thirunelveli halwa from in a wedding of a family friends son .
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