This is a petite little shop that houses mouthwatering little sweet treats down Havelock Road. They specialise in a wide variety of Indian sweetmeats and savouries, which is unsurprising as their parent company is the famous Royal Sweet Meat Mart on Keyzer Street.
Panaash specialises in sweetmeats, faludas, samosas ,Punjabi samosas,a variety of crisps and munchies. They also import products from India and Pakistan.
Hard-to-find Indian pickles and chutneys glisten inside glass bottles in neatly packed aisles.
The Sweets
Their sweets unlock nostalgia, while their fluoro-orange jalebis (Rs.180- 250 grams) spun their magic on my tastebuds. It felt and tasted exactly as I remembered them to be when I was a kid, back in India.
Unlike some places that sell per piece, Panaash sells its sweets and crispy munchies by weight. The milk sweets in general are sold at Rs.180 for 100 grams.The prices vary for each special sweetmeat, faluda, samosa, crisps and rose syrups.
They have ‘muskats’, which are dosed with a large amount of sweet syrup, oil, semolina, nuts, spices and dried fruits. They had a perfect soft jelly like texture that are squishy on the inside and firm on the outside.
Their ‘pedas’ (little sweets made out of milk or milk powder) on the other hand were not exceptional, they had a heavy flavour that was intensely artificial and felt a little spiked with essence but indulging their kaju katli, a diamond shaped sweet enrobed in silver foil, made entirely of cashew paste and sugar, made up for it.
Their barfis were all fine, with unusual flavours such as blueberry and Cadbury. The other flavours were chocolate, mango, strawberry and the usual white barfi, which is milky with a dusting of grated nuts.
Their merry falooda was another topper, made entirely out of their own rose syrup and vermicelli made from scratch, sprinkled with kasa kasa (poppy seeds) and bulbul. It was delicious, decadently presented in a large glass goblet.
Rose syrup flavoured ice lollies(Rs.20) measuring more than a foot were another novelty available.
Panaash also sells three kinds of Samosas, the Punjabi samosa (Rs.50), the Chicken Samosa (Rs.50) and the Beef Samosa (Rs.50). The Punjabi Samosa was a favourite, stuffed with squishy potatoes and peas with a hint of fenugreek. I was told that pre-ordering them on large quantities would come accompanied with an ‘imli’ sauce, a basic tamarind sauce/drizzle that usually complements the Punjabi samosa. The chicken and Beef Samosa were well stuffed but had way too much onion in their filling. You can buy these frozen and fried or unfried.
Conclusion
On the whole, the place is welcoming and clean. They undertake pre orders for Moghul-Style Chicken Biryani, and handle sweet boxes for a price range between Rs 350 for 250 grams and Rs 1400 for 1 kg. If you happen to have an insatiable sweet tooth and find yourself lusting after some Malai Jamun (Rs. 450 for 250 grams) or Gulaab Jamun, we suggest heading over to Panaash for some treats.
