Can you guess what this is? (CYGWTI #1) - Guests, Guesses, and Winners

Dear All:

It is time to reveal the winners of the first edition of CYGWTI #1 (Can You Guess What This Is?) Can you believe how fast one week has gone? We have not even thought in our remotest dreams that CYGWTI would become such a crowd-puller :-). Thank you very much for all of your participation. We just thought of challenging My Dhaba's guests with the picture of the sweets I had received from one of my best friends at work. We just wanted to see if anyone of the guests have the same eagerness and curiosity that I and Adarsh (my 4-yr-old son) had when we got these cute wraps home from office. When we had posted this challenge, the motivation we had was rooted from the fact that these sweets had come from a foreign country, but in look-wise and taste-wise, those were resembling to one of the all-time favorite Indian savories which we all know (?) .

So here is the results of CYGWTI #1.

Background: The picture challenge was posted on November 16, 2005. One week time was given for the guests to come up with their guesses. Please find below the challenged picture.

Here is the summary of the responses from My Dhaba guests:

1. Raji - Pootha rekulu.
2. மதி கந்தசாமி (Mathy) - First attempt - some kind of sweet? almond or cashew based sweet?
3. Paz - No idea.
4. Mika - First attempt - no idea; some sort of dough for the savory etc.
5. Ravi - Kamarkat mittai with jaggery/sugar syrup, shredded coconut, and sesame.
6. Peter Zwart - Pootha rekulu.
7. LERA - Kaaja rolls with sweet filling.
8. Monisha - Badam Halwa.
9. Lavanya - Pootha rekulu - a flaky sugary sweet you only get in Hyderabad, melts in your mouth.
10. Indira - Puta rekulu - the very famous Andhra sweet.
11. Mika - Second attempt - Wheat halvah or elai adai wrapped in wax paper.
12. The Lonely Traveler - Candy/halva wrapped in edible paper.
13. Mika - Third attempt - if paper is edible, then it must be rice paper. Spring rolls of some kind before frying.
14. மதி கந்தசாமி (Mathy) - Second attempt - It is from Phillipines. A sweet made from milk powder.
15. Shakthi - First attempt - toffee.
16. Shakthi - Second attempt - Some sort of burfy.
17. Shakthi - Third attempt - Mysore pak.
18. Sanhita. - Pootha rekulu.

Have you noticed that the most common guess was "Pootha rekulu"? It is Andhra's one of the very famous most popular paper sweets, which is made of maida and sugar. It definitely looks like the same.

Here is the first sweet carefully wrapped by one rectangular hard white paper and one thin Japanese tissue paper. Can you guess now what this is? I know you already had 'hard' time guessing for this all through the week. Thanks for your great patience.

The first sweet is a copycat version of our "Doodh Peda". Our friends Indira and Mika have already written about it wonderfully :-) . Please check it out and give it a reading. It will you the needed inspiration to cook those at home.

CONGRATULATIONS மதி கந்தசாமி (Mathy)! Both of your guesses were perfect ones. This is a Filipino sweet - PASTILLAS DE LECHE came from Philippines. I am quite excited and proud to announce that you are the winner of CYGWTI #1.

Pastillas De Leche recipe:

(Recipe contributed by Julie Z. San Pedro, one of my best friend and colleague at work, thanks Julie). Thanks Suzette for gifting these wonder sweets to us.

Ingredients:
Fresh milk - 1 ½ cups
Sugar - 3 tablespoons; 1/2 cup for rolling pastillas
Butter- 1 teaspoon
Full-cream powdered milk - 5 tablespoons

Method: Boil the milk and sugar into a thick paste. Add butter and powdered milk. Mix thoroughly. Let the paste rest until firm enough to handle. Divide into 20 pieces and roll into small cylinders. Roll in sugar. Wrap in colorful/white Japanese paper.

The second sweet is another perfect guess by மதி கந்தசாமி (Mathy)! Kudos once again my friend. It is an almond and cashew based sweet wrapped up in an edible paper. We are yet to confirm its traditional Filipino name and authentic recipe details. We are so sorry for this that we would be able to post its recipe details only after we get confirmation.

What do you think? Shall we go-ahead and make CYGWTI a blog event where someone (YOU or I) regularly pose a picture challenge related to food or drink and announce the winners/runners-up after giving a week's time? Oh yes, some prizes too. We would need to look out for some sponsors to give attractive prizes as well :-).

Have you had fun and enjoyed the first edition of CYGWTI #1? Are you quite happy with the result? Are you now ready for CYGWTI #2?

This is an interactive blog, so please interact already! We will wait for your kind feedback or gratuitous advice, recipe requests/suggestions through comments of this blog or by e-mailing it to info.vkn@gmail.com. Thanks!