The curious case of 'Nimco'

I went to the supermarket today to get some of the ingredients for the deconstructed cherry cheesecake I am making for Sunday dessert and then stopped by Nimco for some snacks.

Do you know what Nimco is? Here's the thing... Nimco is a brand name and a generic term for traditional spicy snacks all rolled into one. There are many, many shops around Pakistan called Nimco and the funny thing is that they all claim to be the original one. I really have no clue who the brand owner is but the point is that Nimco is hugely popular in Pakistan.

Nimco mainly includes samosas, pakoras and chip-like snacks made out of gram flour. This stuff is very, very good but all of it is deep fried and super high on calories. What you see stacked at the top of this picture is in my opinion the crowning glory of any Nimco shop - Jalebi!

Crispy on the outside and melt in your mouth soft on the inside, jalebis are a traditional Pakistani dessert and are especially popular in Ramazan (as my friend Leila explains in the article I have linked to above). I am in complete awe of the men who make these jalebis; they stand over huge vats of hot, hot oil with a piping bag in one hand and a large slotted spoon in the other. They pipe the batter directly into the hot oil with a deft, circular movement of the wrist which gives these beauties their distinctive shape. It only takes a few seconds for the batter to crisp up on the outside, at which point they are immediately removed from the oil and dunked into another vat of sugar syrup (called sheera in Urdu). I couldn't find anyone actually making jalebis today - this shop was pretty proactive and had them ready in advance - but I will try to bring you that picture at some point in the near future.