Bhadrak: Whoever has gone to Bhadrak court area must have heard or eaten Birendra labangi, a sweet sold by Birendra Kumar Khuntia. The cake-like crispy sweet has customers as far as in Delhi and Mumbai.
The 64-year-old resident of Shankarpur also prepares and sells other food stuff like Dalpuri, Dahibara, Alukasa, Bara and Aluchop as snacks. But his labangi is a favourite of his customers visiting the court. He sells labangi for Rs 5 a piece.
For the last 25 years, Birendra has been running his shop at the court complex, but his labangi is sold like hot cakes. The demand for it is so much that the crispy sweet is sent outside the district.
“The customers keen to take parcels of labangi have to order in advance. Some residents even pay me advance to get labangi next day and to send it to their relatives. I get special orders from customers for two to three days a week to send labangi to Delhi and Mumbai,” he claimed.
He said labangi preparation is easy, but one has to keep in mind time and the right kind of mix of ingredients. In his words, it is prepared by mixing edible oil with maida and the dough is kneaded. The dough is left for some time to absorb moisture.
Then small balls of dough are made and pressed into round shapes like puris. Thereafter, nadiapura (coconut scrapings mixed with molasses) is stuffed into dough balls and deep fried in oil.
PNN