Dharwad Peda or Vadodara’s Penda ?

On our way back from the Statue of Unity, we stopped at the Jagdish Food plaza, Vadodara on the highway. We were meeting Anand, Krishnan’s IIM batchmate who lives in Vadodara.

On a side note, Jagdish Food Plaza is simply outstanding ! Their founder’s story is inspiring and now it’s a well established chain of restaurant-cum-food store. The range of “Farsaan” is mind boggling.

Anyway more about Jagdish Food Plaza separately.

Anand came within 5 minutes of our reaching the restaurant. By way of greeting he handed over a pack of “mithai” to Amma. Once he knew my liking for Bhakarwadi, he got us a pack of that and Lilo Chivda, both being Jagdish Food Plaza’s signature products.

While we were leaving Andy said “this Penda is very special and the store is 160 years old”.

I asked Andy (as Anand is known in the group) if Penda is how Peda is called in Gujarati. He confirmed that was the case.

We got back to Club Mahindra and didn’t open the pack right away as we were very tired. All of us slept early and yesterday I opened the Penda (Peda) packet. See the picture below –

I immediately said “Arrey! this is Dharwad Peda”. Don’t believe me ? Take a look at the pic below –

I can’t see any difference between the two !!

Vadodara’s Penda tasted as awesome as the Dharwad Peda ❤️.

Now, to all those who talk of North-South divide and India being a union of states 🙄 – in every which way we are one united Bharat. Dharwad is a district in Karnataka a state in South India and Gujarat is a state in the West bordering Pakistan. How can they have the exact same sweet if they weren’t part of the same country for hundreds of years ?

The Saree is worn by women in different styles all over India and likewise the Dhoti by men.

All the differences are superficial and politically motivated. Now we also have the first world countries meddling in our culture and trying to drive differences where none exist.

Our attempt is to keep finding things that show our unity even though the local flavours maybe different.

Enjoying Vadodara’s Penda aka Dharwad Peda.

#BharatBhraman