Madta Kaja

Kakinada Kaja is one of a kind. Made only in Kakinada, East Godavari district, it's a GI-tagged sweet that has a texture no other Indian mithai replicates — layers of fried dough that open up in the oil into a honeycomb structure, then soaked in sugar syrup. From the outside it looks like a golden cylindrical sweet. Cut it open and you see the layered interior like a wasp's nest. Bite into it and the crispy layers and the sweet syrup give you two textures at once.

The technique is the reason Kaja is made in Kakinada and barely anywhere else — the dough is rolled, folded repeatedly to create layers, then cut and fried in a specific way that causes the layers to separate and puff into the honeycomb shape. It requires practice and the right consistency of dough.

The syrup is sugar-based — this is the one sweet where jaggery doesn't work, because the crystalline structure of sugar is what gives the coating its characteristic dry-crisp finish.

Eat one piece at a time. They're sweet and rich and you don't need more than one or two. Good with black tea, good as a post-meal mithai, and good as a gift because the shape is striking and the story behind it is interesting to tell.