Dhaka Delight - Lakemba

Located on the corner of Lakemba's main street and Railway Parade, Dhaka Delight is a Bangladeshi bakery that offers a variety of delicious sweets. Their gulab jamun, made with milk powder and soaked in sugar syrup with cardamom and rose water, is a childhood favorite. They also offer jilapi, known as jalebi in India, which are fried dough soaked in sugar syrup. Cream toasts are similar to mini hotdog rolls, filled with whipped cream and pistachios. Cream jam takes the gulab jamun style sweets and adds a creamy center with dried milk. Shada chomchom are oval-shaped sweets dusted with dried milk. Dhaka Delight offers these sweets for individual purchase or by the kilo, with kilo prices up to $30. They also serve cafe-style drinks and have daily specials that can be viewed on the Khushboo Sweets Facebook page, as Dhaka Delight is part of the Khushboo Sweets restaurant family.

Having some knowledge of Indian sweets, I was pleased to discover familiar treats from this neighboring region. Dhaka Delight's Gulab Jamun ($2 each) are a particularly tasty version of a dessert I've enjoyed since childhood. Similar to many treats from the Indian subcontinent, these sweets are made with milk powder instead of flour, resulting in a rich, creamy texture enhanced by the flavors of cardamom and rose water in the sugar syrup they are soaked in. We also sampled some jilapi, known more commonly as jalebi in India - these bright orange, fried dough spirals burst with sugary syrup with every bite. Among the new sweets I encountered were the Cream Toasts ($3 each), resembling unbaked mini hotdogs in buns. After bringing a few home, we discovered they were milky pastries drenched in sugar syrup, filled with whipped cream, and finished with finely chopped pistachios. The Cream Jam ($3 each) offered a twist on the traditional gulab jamun style sweets, with a creamy center sandwiched between the split sweet treats and topped with dried milk. The oval-shaped Shada Chomchom ($3 each), also coated in dried milk, offered another delightful exploration of Bangladeshi desserts to my taste buds. All of these sweets can be purchased individually or in larger quantities by the kilo, with prices ranging up to thirty dollars. In addition to its sweet treats, Dhaka Delight offers a selection of café-style beverages, from coconut thickshakes to freshly brewed condensed milk tea. As part of the Khushboo Sweets & Restaurant family, the business does not have its own website, but you can find information about daily specials and shisha flavors on the Khushboo Facebook page.

Standing proudly under a golden crescent moon at the intersection of Lakemba's main street and Railway Parade, Dhaka Delight quickly grabbed my attention.