The Glorious Food Glossary
The Glorious Food Glossary tells you everything important about the world of food. The Food Glosssary is all about different kinds of food from all over the world and how they are prepared and what their main ingredients are.
Moreover, the glossary is all about what people all over the world are eating and drinking and their activities, festivities, marriages, etc that involves food.
This Food Glossary is all about food . . . glorious food. We tell you about the food, some stories about them and we try our best to make photos of them as we travel around the world. As of now, we are featuring extensively foods from Germany, the Philippines and the State of Kerala, India, but we will add more pictures for you to enjoy as we discover the food of the world... as we travel around the globe.
All articles are available through the search function or via the A to Z line at the top of every page.
Nan Khatai / Nankhatai
Nan Khatai / Nankhatai refer to a light and crunchy authentic eggless Indian sweet or savory buttery cookies with Ghee, Flour (Maida) Rava/Sooji (Semolina) sometimes Gram Flour (Besan/Kadalamavu) are also added and for sugar for the sweet version. Cardamon is also addded for that aromatic taste. Nowadays, some people are adding extra flavor to it, by adding Chocolates and Rose water to the dough. It is also described as crumbly, soft, delicate and smooth shortbread cookie.
Rava or Sooji is added for extra crunchy and cripsy texture. Some also add chopped nuts to their recipe.
Traditionally, an Indian cookie, Nan Khatai has a Dutch origin when the Dutch occupied Gujarat. It is said the recipe Nan Khatai originated the large port city of Gujarat, particularly in Surat at the end of 16th century when Dutch set up a bakery and handed down the recipe to a trusted Farsi employee named Faramji Pestonji Dotivala when they left India.
Nan Khatai is famous in Goa and distributed as goodies for Christmas. It is not only popular all over India, but also in Pakistan.
Nan Khatai is also called Nankhat and is a popular Diwali dessert. The story nowadays is that Nankhatai is a dying tradition with the emergence of so many cookies and biscuits from all over the western world. It is getting harder to find them in the local market and bakeshops. In New Delhi, however, there are still those who make sell them as street food in pushcarts.
The picture below of Nan Khatai was a gift to a family friend in Kerala who wanted very much to taste Nan Khatai because it always reminds him of his childhood. This particular cookie reminds everyone of childhood. It brings back lots of happy memories.
