Sweet affair: Malda to host ‘Mishti Mela’ in June

malda: The mango and sweet lovers can now tickle their taste buds with ‘Sandesh’, ‘Rasogolla’ and ‘Raskadombo’ flavoured with mangoes. Malda will host a ‘Mishti Mela’ (sweet fair) in the second week of June to showcase the sweets made from mangoes.

Recently, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, during her visit to Malda had suggested making a variety of sweets and curd flavoured with mangoes. She stressed on value addition to Malda’s famous mangoes.

The district administration had a meeting with the sweet traders association, Malda Chamber of Commerce, Mango growers’ association and all the concerned departments on Wednesday afternoon. ‘Sandesh’, ‘Rasogolla’ and ‘Raskadombo’ made with mangoes will be available in the fair. Further, the sweet makers will be trained to produce mango-sweets. Nitin Singhania, District Magistrate Malda, said: “An initiative has also been planned to train local sweet makers in making sweets from mango pulp. Mango pulp storage along with a mango sweet fair has been planned. Various processed food items of mango including mango pickle, mango fried pulp (Aamsatwa), and Aamchur will be sold in the proposed fair alongside mango-sweets. The local traders also sampled almost 15 types of sweets made from mango pulp.”

Malda is famous for its variety of mangoes and their taste. A new feather to its hat can be added by showcasing the sweets that contain pulp of the fruit produced in the district through processing. The Chief Minister had laid stress on this in the administrative meeting done by her on May 4 at the Malda College Auditorium. She also expressed her desire to showcase these mango sweets in the Biswa-Bangla stalls set up in major cities of West Bengal.

The sweets brought by the traders as samples included betel leaf mango sandesh. Another looked like a peeled mango with a ripe mango flavoured liquid inside it. Raskadombo, famous in Malda, was also made from green mangoes.

Manbendra Mandal, general manager of District Industrial Center (DIC) said: “It has been decided to hold a mango and sweet fair at the Malda College grounds tentatively from June 15 to 20. Arrangement of training will be done with trainers from Department of Food Technology of Jadavpur University and other specialist organizations. Outlets and kiosks will be set up for the sale of the mango sweets and

other items.”