Gur Anarsa: Bihar's Almost-Forgotten Festival Sweet

The sweet fewer kitchens still make

Ask around, and you'll find fewer and fewer homes in Bihar still make anarsa the traditional way. It takes soaking rice for days, grinding it by hand into a fine paste, mixing it with real jaggery, and rolling it in til before frying it slow until golden.

It's not a quick sweet. It's not a cheap one either, once you count the rice, the jaggery, the sesame, and the hours of patience the process demands. That's exactly why most shops stopped making it — anarsa doesn't scale well, and shortcuts ruin its texture completely.

We still make it the old way, only in small batches, mostly around festival season. If you've never tasted a proper homemade anarsa, order it here and see what a nearly-forgotten Bihari sweet is actually supposed to taste like.