Dessert · Sunrise Sweet

Jalebi

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Jalebi's fermented-batter method is thought to have traveled to India over a thousand years ago along Persian trade routes as "zoolbia," making it one of the subcontinent's oldest continuously made street sweets.

A fermented batter is piped into hot oil in tight spiral loops, deep-fried until crisp, then plunged straight into warm, cardamom-scented sugar syrup to soak. Vendors fry it fresh in a wide karahi at dawn and evening, serving it hot with a side of milk or rabri.

Why it's made this way: The dish's Persian ancestry and centuries-long presence at Indian sweet shops make it one of the region's oldest surviving street desserts, still made with the same fry-and-soak method it arrived with.