It has been a long time since I’ve partaken of sweets. I was about 16 years old when I quit eating them. It seemed like the thing to do at the time. Sugary treats had a negative effect on me. They put me in a bad mood. So I quit.
I haven’t had a pie, cookie, cake, waffle, muffin, pancake, or candy bar in all that time. Not a bite of Cap’n Crunch. Not a Fig-Dang-Newton. None of it. But I love to live vicariously through others. I enjoy it when those around me are enjoying it. So that is how it goes.
Eerily, I am always interested in those whacky dessert videos on Facebook, where they make the Super Triple Chocolate Peanut Butter Caramel Torpedoes. Or whatever. I always feel like I am a stalker when I watch them. Those videos are oddly satisfying.
This morning, I saw that CNN’s Travel Section came out with their Best 50 Desserts in the World List. CNN on the spot. Delivering the trusted news.
It wasn’t a list of Restaurants and their desserts. No. It was a review of the best dang desserts, from a range of countries, and their cultures.
There were several winners from the United States. Go-To’s. Chocolate Chip Cookies, Brownies, New York Cheese Cake, Sour Cherry Pie, Donuts, Southern Coconut Cake.
Green Jell-O Molds were nowhere on the list.
Then. There were other good favorites from around the world:
Apfelstrudel — Austria
Baklava — Turkey
Black Forest Cake — Germany
Chocolate Mousse — France
Crème Brûlée — France
Gelato — Italy
Sticky Toffee Pudding — United Kingdom
Tiramisú — Italy
And so. The other 36 seemed a little less obvious to me. Maybe because I don’t frequent a lot of these places. But there was M’hanncha, from Morocco. Qatayef, hailing from the Middle East. It goes on.
The one that struck me was “Gulab Jamun,” all the way from India. It starts out with a scoop of khoya. Yes khoya. I didn’t know either. Khoya is a reduction of buffalo milk that simmers for several hours over a low flame. That’s what khoya is. What I really want to know, is how you milk a dang buffalo. There has to be an extremely high level of difficulty in creating this particular dessert.
But if that wasn’t enough, you then take the simmered buffalo milk, and you fry it. In ghee. Now, for those who don’t know. Ghee is a clarified butter from India. I don’t know if clarified, is like “Enlightened” or what. But it gets its roots, sometimes, from buffalo curds. Again. With the buffalo. But, after you fry the buffalo milk in enlightened buffalo fat, you dip and soak the concoction in syrup. And more syrup.
Of course, now I am curious about Indian Buffalo. So I searched. The world buffalo population is estimated at 185.29 million. They are all over the world, and spread in some 42 countries. But the very most of them are in Asia. They have 179.75 million. Next is India. They are listed as having 105.1 million.
Now, if you were paying attention back there. 179.75 million + 105.1 million = 284.85 million. And there are only 185.29 million world wide. Someone at the Buffalopedia site can’t do math.
I think it comes from trying to milk a buffalo, and getting kicked in the head one time too many. All for the love of Gulab Jamun.
Tonight, we had the HIT Foundation Christmas Party at our house. We served Turtle Cheesecake, and Coconut Cake for dessert.
Tasty, yet less dangerous than Gulab Jamun.
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Dessert List CNN: https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/world-50-best-desserts/index.html
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BuffaloPedia Stats. http://www.buffalopedia.cirb.res.in/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=51%3Apopulation&catid=46%3Abuffalo&Itemid=59&lang=en
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“I’ve never met a problem a proper cupcake couldn’t fix.”
― Sarah Ockler, Bittersweet
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