Malaiyo

Malaiyo is a milk-foam sweet eaten on winter mornings in Varanasi. Pale yellow foam is heaped into small unglazed clay cups and finished with nuts such as pistachios, along with cardamom and saffron. Unlike sweets in which milk is set firm enough to slice, malaiyo is so light that the shape you scoop up with a spoon does not hold for long.

Malaiyo served in an unglazed clay cup (Varanasi, 2021, Rinchin1 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0). Reduced-size version from the source used; content not changed after retrieval.

Malaiyo being served into cups at a shopfront in Varanasi (2017, Amol Sinha / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0). Reduced-size version from the source used; content not changed after retrieval.

Prepared at night, foam gathered at dawn

Among makers, a process has been handed down in which the milk is boiled, left exposed to the winter night air, and then churned into foam at dawn. The foam that rises to the surface is gathered and transferred into cups, and sugar and aromatics are added. The preparation proceeds step by step, from heating and cooling the milk to churning it and separating out the foam.

Locally, it is said that the night dew makes malaiyo. This is the makers’ explanation, expressing both the step of setting the milk out under the winter sky and the sweet’s seasonality. However, night dew alone does not turn milk into foam; in practice, it takes the handwork of cooling the milk, churning it, and separating out the foam.

Not milk skin, but milk filled with air

India has many sweets made by boiling milk down to concentrate it, or by gathering the skin that forms on its surface. What distinguishes malaiyo is that it is enjoyed not only for the richness of the milk but also for its air-filled foam. Against that foam, the nuts add a small, firm crunch.

The handling of the milk, the spices, and the way the foam is separated differ from shop to shop, so even for malaiyo from the same city, the recipe cannot be pinned down to a single formula. Because it is not a sweet made as a large block and sold by the slice, the work of keeping the foam in good condition continues right up until it is served into cups.

A morning sweet of the old city

In winter, shops serving malaiyo appear along the streets of the old city, such as Chowk, Chaukhamba, and Thatheri Bazaar. Some customers come to eat it in the morning, and in some cases shops that sell cold milk drinks such as lassi handle malaiyo in winter. Some shops also pour sweet saffron milk into the cup once the foam has been eaten.

Raj Kumar, who runs a lassi shop, told a local newspaper in a 2013 interview that while demand for cold drinks falls in the cold season, the malaiyo he sells in winter keeps the shop going.

Glossary