Burdwan Sitabhog Mihidana Sweet West Bengal

Sitabhog and Mihidana are twin GI-tagged sweets of Burdwan (Bardhaman) district, West Bengal — considered the quintessential sweets of the region and associated with the cuisine of the Burdwan Maharaja's court. Sitabhog is a fine-grain fragrant rice flour vermicelli cooked with milk, sugar, and raisins to produce a dessert resembling very fine white rice grains in sweet cream — the name means "Sita's food." Mihidana (meaning fine grain) is tiny fried gram flour spheres cooked in ghee and soaked in saffron-flavoured sugar syrup — resembling very small orange boondi. Both sweets were created by Burdwan confectioners for the Maharaja of Burdwan in the late 19th century, who presented them as gifts to the British Viceroy. The GI tag covers both sweets as products of Burdwan town. The Ghosh (confectioner) families of Burdwan have maintained the recipes for over 150 years. Sitabhog requires a specific short-grain rice variety from Burdwan called Gobindobhog — an aromatic rice that produces the particular fine-grained texture. Burdwan Sitabhog and Mihidana are sold at dedicated sweet shops in Burdwan and supplied to Kolkata, with seasonal demand peaks during Durga Puja and Bengali festivals.