Restaurants to talk about: Guru Sweet Mart
- Ricesome
- Aug 11, 2023
- 3 min read
This one's a bit different because it is not technically a restaurant as the name suggests. It's a very famous sweet shop in one of the popular cities in South India- Mysore. When someone mentions Mysore, most of us immediately think of Mysore Pak. From now on, when someone mentions Mysore Pak, I will immediately think of Guru Sweet Mart.
Located on the Sayyaji Road near the Devaraja Market building, Guru Sweet Mart has been serving the people of Mysore the most famous and authentic Mysore Pak available. This shop was started over a hundred years ago on Ashoka Road under the name "Desikendra Sweet Stall", and was shifted to Sayyaji Road around 60 years ago. It is run by three brothers: Nataraj, Kumar, and Shivanand. They are the fifth-generation descendants of the family that invented the world-famous Mysore Pak.
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It was 1935, a sunny day (most probably) in the Amba Vilas Palace. King Krishna Raja Wadiyar IV was eating a meal prepared by his famous chef, Kakasura Madappa. As the king was finishing his meal, Madappa realized that he had to serve him some sweets or dessert at the end. So, in a hurry, he mixed together sugar syrup with gram flour and made a thick mixture out of it. By the time, the king finished his meal, the mixture had set and it was cut into chunks and served. The king loved the sweet so much that he asked Madappa the name of his new concoction. In a hurry, he called it "Mysore Pak" where the word Pak means sugar syrup.
That is one story........another story states that Madappa was experimenting with sweets and he landed on this specific concoction. He served it to the king after his meal and the king appreciated its taste and named it after the city of Mysore. Either way, the origin of the word Pak in Mysore Pak comes from the fact that it is made out of sugar syrup. The king also felt that the people of Mysore should taste and appreciate this sweet. So he ordered Madappa to open a shop just outside the premises of the palace. Hence, the Desikendra Sweet Stall was born. Guru Sweet Mart was started by M Basavanna whose great grandfather was Madappa. Now, it is run by the grandchildren of Basavanna.
Mysore Pak is a very simple sweet to make. It consists of besan or gram flour, sugar syrup, turmeric, and ghee or vanaspati (vegetable oil). Guru Sweet Mart uses a traditional coal stove to cook their Mysore Pak mixture. Even with the introduction of gas and electric stoves in modern times, they stick to their traditional methods. The mixture takes over 45 minutes to cook and it should be stirred constantly. This is a process that requires a lot of physical labor. Kumar, one of the owners of Guru Sweet Mart, says that their cooks need to work with them atleast for 10-15 years before they can start working on Mysore Pak.
Guru Sweet Mart serves 3 different types of Mysore Pak along with other sweets and savories. The 3 main varieties are Special Mysore Pak, Ordinary Mysore Pak, and Milk Mysore Pak. Special Mysore Pak is made out of ghee and is very soft and melts in the mouth. Ordinary Mysore Pak is made from vanaspati or vegetable fat. This one is harder in texture compared to the special Mysore Pak. Over the years, many variations have evolved such as milk Mysore Pak, Horlicks Mysore Pak, etc. (Prices in Guru Sweet Mart: Special Mysore Pak (Thuppa) - ₹480/kg, Ordinary Mysore Pak (Vanaspati) - ₹280/kg, Milk Mysore Pak - ₹600/kg)
Guru Sweet Mart sits as a small shop on Sayyaji Road continuing to serve people one of India's most popular culinary heritages. It not only passes on a delicious sweet invented by a royal chef but also continues the legacy of Madappa and King Krishna Raja Wadiyar IV who was a food connoisseur and wanted his people to taste this exquisite creation made in his palace.
The next time I go to Mysore the first thing I visit won't be the Mysore Palace or Sri Chamundeshwari Temple, it will be a small shop on Sayyaji Road serving a melt-in-your-mouth sweet that has a lot of passion and history in its making.
See you next week!
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