The gooey mixture on the stove tempts with its smell and colour. The long wheat halwa is in the final stages of preparation and the sight makes me forget that the kitchen is cramped and I had made my way to it, climbing a narrow iron stairway.
The action unfolds on the first floor of one of the homes that line the heritage street at Vazhappally Junction, near the southern entrance of Sree Padmanabha Swamy Temple in Thiruvananthapuram. Since 1985, wheat halwa has been the USP of Balaji Cafe, a nondescript vegetarian hotel located at the Junction.
While the red halwa is available at Balaji Cafe throughout its working hours, the eatery has a separate halwa counter in the adjacent building, which is open in the evenings. “The red halwa is sold as slices, while what you get from the evening counter is more like a pudding, which you can eat in scoops. The latter can be eaten hot, fresh off the stove. We have been planning to serve hot halwa for many years now,” says N Ramachandran, who runs the hotel. “The red halwa is slightly hard when compared to the other one,” adds his wife, S Jayanthi.
Ramachandran remembers that Balaji Cafe, which his father opened in 1980, was introduced to the long wheat halwa by Kicha, one of his friends from Bombay, as it was called then. “However, it took some five years for the sweet to click with customers. After that there has been no looking back,” says Ramachandran. The halwa was sold then at ₹60 per kilogram. Now the same quantity costs ₹400. “We prepare 10 kilograms each in two batches every day,” adds Jayanthi.
Preparing the halwa
Long wheat is soaked for three hours and ground to extract the milk, which is kept aside for 12 hours. This milk is added to the sugar syrup. Ghee is added to the blend. After non-stop stirring of the mixture for at least three hours, the halwa attains the required consistency. Cashew nuts, a small quantity of vanaspathi and food colour are added. The halwa can be sliced only after a few hours. “We don’t add any colour to the halwa sold at the evening counter,” Jayanthi says.
The couple says their two sons, R Lekshminarayanan and R Sethupathy, have also been trained to make the halwa even though they are employed elsewhere. Krishnamoorthy, Ramachandran’s younger brother, also is around to help him.
“The halwa won’t be spoilt even if you keep it outside for several months provided there is no moisture,” says Jayanthi.
Ramachandran adds, “This is a home-run enterprise and we don’t make the halwa in large quantities. But we do get bulk orders during festivals and for functions such as marriages.”
While the hotel is open from 7am to 11am and 3.30pm to 10pm, the halwa counter functions from 6pm to 9pm. Contact: 9497785851.
