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Food Review

Brahmanbarian Chhanamukhi


Bangladeshpost
Published : 09 Jul 2019 08:34 PM | Updated : 10 Feb 2021 04:19 PM

Sanjia Chowdhury Trisha

One of the fastest growing districts of the country is, Brahmanbaria. This is a land of music, culture and it is primarily known as a land of natural gas. This land is also famous for its delicious and yummy sweets! A traditional sweet confectionery of Bangladesh is a delightful savor of Brahmanbaria. Today I will talk about a traditional and famous sweet of Brahmanbaria called "Chhanamukhi".

"About 60 litres of milk and 10 kilograms of sugar are required to make just 10 kilograms of chhanamukhi", said Gopal Das, a sweet maker at Mohadeb Mistanno Bhandar. It is a hard, square and sugar dusted sweet. To make chhanamukhi, the milk is first made into chhana, or cottage cheese. The cheese is then compressed into a flat block, cut into square pieces and then fried in syrup. The deeper the fry, better the chhanamukhi!

The chhanamukhi is also known as "Lady Cany/Kanni" in the area and there is an interesting tale behind that. Apparently, during the British colonial rule, Lord and Lady Canning had high praises for the chanamukhi when they had the one made by Mohadeb Paar of Mohadeb Potti, which led to the sweet getting its local name. In the very beginning, because of the secret recipe and its overall process, chanamukhi was available in very few sweet shops in the district like "Adorsho Mishtanno Vandar", "Volagiri Mishtanno Vandar" and "Mohadeb Mishtanno Vandar". But, nowadays, this sweet is available in several sweet confectionaries; in fact it is now available in Cumilla also. But, still now no one can beat the taste of original Brahmanbarian chhanamukhi.

The chhanamukhi could not be made anywhere else in Bangladesh. Even this sweet has its reputation in the foreign countries. In 1986, at the Bangladesh's Independence Day function in Islamabad, President of Pakistan, General Ziaul Huq, wrote about Brahmanbaria's Lady Kanni, which was published in various newspapers of Pakistan.


Price - BDT 550/kg
Rating - Somethings cannot
be rated with
numbers.

Sanjia Chowdhury Trisha is a food enthusiast