Finding Malaiyo

When you slip a spoonful of  Malaiyo into your mouth, the froth of stiffly churned milk meets the cold dew of a winter’s night on the tip of your tongue.

Malaiyo is a winter dessert of Varanasi, available only on the cold misty mornings of this season. As a dessert, it checks many boxes- it's  light, sweet and  fragrant. It comes in a small earthen pot with the mouth the size of your palm and depth that of a thimble. It’s gone before you know it, but it’s heavy flavours linger long after you have swallowed the last fluffy spoonful.
But... for any self respecting idea or dish there are always buts. Before the buts, a little about how Malaiyo is made.
There’s something magical about  the process when a local explains it to you

You boil the milk in the Kadhai for sometime.

How long?

You will know when it’s done.

Then?

Then we leave it out under the cold sky through the night.

Just like that, in the open?

Of course not. We cover it with a fine mesh or muslin cloth to allow the dew to seep inside.

Then?

Next morning we churn it by hand, scoop out the froth, add sugar, saffron, cardamom, almonds , pistas.

The dessert cannot be made without the cold dew, hence only available in winters. 

Something that sounds like it's  made of moonlight and pixie dust ought not have buts, surely. But there are Buts.  One could not help thinking that the sweetness, the flavours, the nuts overpowered the core. But what else would  happen when the core was just milk froth? And perhaps the dish got its character from the overpowering flavours.

And so, what of the experience? It was like eating a tiny fragment of flavoured cloud. You are highly unlikely to experience it elsewhere or ever again.