Odisha, the name itself sounds synonymous with lots of mouth watering delicacies. From Salepur Rasogolla to Chandikhol Peda, from Nimapada chhena jhili to Kendrapada Rasabali,Odisha boasts all of these with pride. One such dessert which makes all Odiyas go weak in their knees is Chhena poda.
Yeah!! This baked cheesecake dessert has a unique place of its own, when it comes to sweet dishes. My love for Chhena poda germinated at a time when I was least expecting it. I must have been around nine; we were traveling from Bhubaneswar to Jajpur Road as my Dad who was an Engineer had got his posting there. It was summer of 1990 and in the scorching heat, we embarked on our maiden journey to this new place.The idea of spending vacation away from our home, was kind of making me excited as well as nervous at the same time. Excited to explore a new bustling town and nervous as I didn’t want to leave my old friends and go. My Dad could sense that easily and he exclaimed in a jovial way,
“ Cheer up Dear! There’s something coming your way”
All through I kept on wondering, what it could be? And finally there was a place called Panikoili where my Dad got down and got this palatable delicacy for all of us.
“ Here comes the famous Chhena poda!” He said with a smile.
I had heard about it beforehand too, but that was the first time when I tasted it. The moment I took a bite, it melted immediately in my mouth……………
“This is heavenly!” I couldn’t control my excitement.
All my anxiety evaporated with that bite and I hugged my Dad close to my chest.
Since that day Chhena poda became an integral part of my life. Whenever someone would go out, I would ask them to fetch the same for me. Not only that when guests would arrive, I made it a point to check the contents of the packet to ensure, if Chhena poda proudly sat inside the box or not. From win in elocution competitions to good grades, no celebration seemed complete without this sweet. Sounds silly, but I had become a crazy fan of this yum delicacy in no time. As I grew older, my love for the said sweet too scaled heights. In my wildest dreams, I had never thought that a time would come when gorging on this would be a luxury. Seriously, as I stepped out of the state to join my first job in Mumbai, in the year 2005 the second thing I missed after my parents was this friend of mine. Despite my efforts I was unable to locate any Odiya restaurant which could have it. Without pondering further, I satisfied my sweet tooth by exploring other alternatives and soon Chhena poda made way for jelebis and gulabjamuns.
You call it destiny….but my hubby too turned out to be a big fan of this baked cheese cake. Post marriage, We relocated to Pune wherein luckily we discovered an Odiya restaurant. The moment we saw it, we couldn’t control our excitement and went inside to enquire about this big “C” of Odisha.
“Yeah ! We have it” Those words were like music to our ears.
We packed almost one kg of the sweet and eagerly drove home to relish the same. One bite and all our excitement died down. It was no where close to the taste of the ones we get in our home state. A hard lesson for both of us……….we decided not to explore any further. After staying in Pune for eight years we moved to the US owing to our assignments. Somehow in all these years I had forgotten about this delicacy completely, till it surfaced before me once again in Parashakti temple,Michigan. We had been there for Jagannath Puja (arranged by the Odiya community)and were eagerly waiting to have the prasadam. Me and my two boys were in the queue with our respective plates. I had never expected that I will get a glimpse of my old lost friend here.
Yeah! I was elated at the sight of Chhena poda. I couldn’t control my joy and shouted at the top of my voice,
“ Yay! Chhena poda ……………..”
My boys face turned red with embarrassment and they said in a slow murmur,
“Mom! Please control”
Before I could reply, my husband said,
“Your Mom and Me are euphonious at the sight of this, we shouldn’t be blamed!You too will fall in love with it”
Though my boys seemed least interested, we husband wife duo relished this to our heart’s content. It was soft, smooth just as we get in our native.It was definitely a kick to our taste buds.
“ Chhena poda in US ?” I couldn’t hold myself back and went on to enquire about the creator of this amazing dish.
Suddenly an elegant saree clad lady, exclaimed…………
“I made it Dear! It’s super easy. You can bake it too”
Now, my mind started racing like a computer. I went a step closer and asked
“ Di, Can you please share the recipe with me?”
“ Ohh! Sure…”
She described the process and it seemed easy. It was news to me that, chenna could be replaced by Ricotta cheese and still the taste of the cake would be the same. I couldn’t have been happier and thanked my stars to have known the technique of making this loved “C” at home.Next weekend itself I tried it in my kitchen and it came out perfect. Finally after all these years, I knew how to make this in small easy steps and now in US too whenever we have an occasion to celebrate, we cut this most loved roasted cheese cake of our own in the sweetest way possible.
