Say Cheese, It’s Chhena Poda Dibasa & Odias Across Globe Can’t Keep Calm; Check Twitter Posts

Bhubaneswar: Twitter is flooded with posts on Chhena Poda Dibasa with Odisha celebrating the accidental dessert known for its typical lingering taste for the first time.

Accidental because Sudarshan Sahu, who owned a sweet shop at Dasapalla in Nayagarh, left sugar-infused chhena or cottage cheese with cardamon and cashew seasonings in a charcoal oven overnight and discovered an exquisitely delicious delicacy, which gave the state a distinct identity and flavour, the following morning. He slowly perfected Chhena Poda, which literally means burnt cheese, with a caramelised crust. By baking it wrapped in sal leaves, he gave the cardamom-scented cottage cheesecake a distinct aroma.

It brought him a lot of fame over the years, with the then Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru also appreciating the dish.

Odias picked April 11 to celebrate the dessert as a tribute to its creator on his birth anniversary.

Chhena Poda is easily the state’s best-known sweetmeat and the showstopper dessert among Odia sweet dishes with takers all over the world. It is also offered to Lord Jagannath at Srimandir in Puri. And there has been a demand for a GI tag for the sweet dish.

It was featured in the culture-centric television channel, EPIC, in its Raja, Rasoi Aur Anya Kahaniyaan series that chronicles the discovery of many dishes of India and their history, hosted by celebrity chef Ranveer Brar, in 2018.

Here is how the netizens describe Chhena Poda and celebrate its creator: