More than just a ‘mithai pasal’ (With Photos)

Mithai shops are a dime-a-dozen today but the Shree Nanda Mithai Bhandar stands out with its timeless recipes. It’s popular with people lining up for their daily dose of Nepali sweets on a daily basis.

“The shop first opened its doors 165 years ago and has been passed down for five to six generations,” says Radha Krishna Rajkarnikar who currently manages the store. The shop is located at the heart of Patan Durbar Square right behind the Krishna mandir. It’s famous for its amazing traditional Newari sweets which carry many cultural values and emotions. Newari sweets are used in almost all of their festivals and marriage ceremonies.

This store prepares more than 35 varieties of sweets. The ‘khuwa ko barfi’, ‘lakhamari’, and ‘jeri swari’ are some of the bestselling items. Despite good business, they haven’t expanded and still make all their items at the store premises itself. Rajkarnikar says this is intentional as they believe their popularity is because of the quality of their products and they don’t want to compromise with it.

“We didn’t open a cafe despite the demands for one because we want to maintain strict discipline regarding cleanliness and quality. We have a lot of regular customers that we don’t want to let down at any cost,” he says.

Behind the shop is a little space where the workers make all the mouth-watering sweets. The Nepali month of Mangsir sees a lot of weddings and the store gets inundated with orders. “Sometimes we make sweets till one in the morning, sleep for four hours, and wake up to complete the orders,” says Rajkarnikar.

Interestingly, the shop isn’t just a place that sells sweets and occasionally allows its workers to take long naps. It’s also where an important part of the Kartik naach takes place. On the second last day of the festival—when Narasingha, the fourth avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu, kills the evil power Hiranyakashyap, an asura king of the daityas in the Puranic scriptures of Hinduism. The ceremony is held inside the shop on that day. They empty the cooking room for the ritual.