1000 Year Old Jalebi (Zalabia)

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I had a friend who tried to explain to me what Jalebi was. When he finished, I said "so, it's like Indian funnel cake?". He looked me dead in the eye and said "funnel cake is American Jalebi". I'll never forget that

Got to appreciate that no matter what year or what country we live in we all enjoy fried dough covered in sugar

I can’t believe this took you 1000 years to make. The dedication to your videos is insane.

I grew up in an area with a large Indian population and always loved Diwali. Houses would be lit up, the temple was beautifully decorated, there were so many fireworks that the neighbourhood sounded like it was exploding, and neighbours and co-workers would give out sweets. There was a sweet old woman who lived next door, she'd bring us various Indian sweets on Diwali and we'd bring her shortbread at Christmas. Now I live in a place where no one had heard of Diwali and it's one of the things I really miss around this time of year.

"There are like 40 of these, I can't eat them all.... but I might eat them all * crunch crunch *" You're such a joy and a gem to watch.

A freshly made jalebi with a steaming cup of chai is one of the simple pleasures of life.

I’m a paramedic in Scotland. Our city has a really large Asian community with Sikhs, Hindus, Muslims and a thriving Buddhist community. I absolutely love working during Diwali! The houses and temples are always so beautiful and the families are so generous and friendly! I work a late shift from 1pm to midnight and there’s never any need to bring food to work as any celebrating house we go to will insist on feeding us! Beautiful curries, jalebi by the box and even simple things like bottles of water or cans of juice (soda in your part of the world!) It’s a beautiful festival!

I love how this comment section is so international. People from all over the world telling their stories. Food really brings people together!

When I was a secretary at an accounting office, my boss was East Indian (as was 99.9% of our clients) and we celebrated Diwali at work. I remember these sweets well - our resident diabetic screamed in horror, and the sweetness was so intense it made our teeth hurt. I loved them, but the Gujurati version made me truly understand my boss: work hard, party hard, drink much, exercise a lot, high spiced savory food, high sugared sweets ... the man and our clients did nothing by half.

Chef's kiss to you for covering different religions' celebrations and traditional foods associated with those celebrations.

Thank you so much for this recipe and history! My mother was from India, my father from Germany, so I grew up on this (and many other) types of food. My father greatly enjoyed Indian food. He used to joke that Jalebi reminded him of the appearance of Malayalam script, which is very much based on curved shapes, as it was written traditionally on leaves that would tear if you drew a straight line in the wrong direction. My mother was not a person very interested in food, so my father taught himself Indian cooking. (Thank you, Madhur Jaffrey!) After my parents divorced, my father remarried to a German woman, nearly exactly his own age, and introduced her to Indian food, which she very much enjoyed. While it is not historical and suitable for this channel, I recommend Madhur Jaffery's recipe for lamb and spinach curry. It was my father's go-to dish for introducing people to Indian food. People who had never liked lamb before liked it. People who never liked spinach before liked it. People who never liked curry before liked it. People who said they'd never liked lamb, spinach OR curry before liked it. When the blog "The Great Big Vegetable Challenge" (aimed at getting a child unwilling to try vegetables open to new options) reached "S is for Spinach" I recommended it, and the dish was a hit. My father developed dementia and had to be in a nursing home since 2018, and COVID got him in early 2021. (After he was eligible for a vaccine, but when the distribution was so messed up he never had a chance.) You brought back profound memories for me.

What a pleasant surprise, this is one of my favorites! In Iraq there aren't any special occasions in which this is eaten, but usually it's served as part of a platter (with different kinds of baklawa and other sweets). Great video.

I was recently at an Indian restaurant, and they offered me some jalebi for free and explained to me their upcoming holiday. It was delicious!!

Fun fact There's a softer version of Jalebi in west bengal and Bangladesh that's called "chenar jilabi" which mostly consists of milk curd and soaked in syrup, man it's such a delight to eat it fresh and warm

I love old recipes that call for odd measurements, “a piece of butter the size of a squirrel’s ear”, or to boil an egg as long “as it takes to say a pater noster”. Thank you so much Max, I love your channel and the history of the recipes. Best of luck with your cookbook!

Your ability to say words w/ the correct accents and dialects is amazing. You've done everything from Swedish to Chinese and everybody comments on how you say the words correct. Well done.

"so if you find yourself on the roads to Bengal.... in the 1860s..." ROFL! This is why I love you, Max. History mixed with comedy and good eats, to boot!

It's so lovely to see more and more food diversity. Diwali is a holiday I wish I knew more about.

For maximizing the use of Saffron I recommend grinding it into a powder with a little bit of sugar using a mortar and pestle, then adding the water. It's what they do in Iran and it allows you to use half the quantity for the same color and flavor. Saffron isn't cheap after all.