Apr 24 2013.
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I am standing outside Nanditha Gamage’s home with my photographer Kushan and an incredible aroma of milk toffee wafts over to the side
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of the road. It smells of everything happy and comfortable, alongside delightful childhood memories of pigging out on this confection with my cousins. And then I know that this milk toffee has to be one of a kind. Nanditha Gamage makes the most indulgent milk toffee Colombo has ever eaten.No exaggerations here. You might just know of this treat if you’ve ever bought milk toffee from an Odel outlet. A hearty piece of toffee with several bits of cashew nuts embedded in it, the treat is made with butter, sugar and condensed milk.
Nanditha tells me that she started supplying her homemade confections to Odel five years ago and she started with 40 pieces back then. Now she provides them with a staggering 600 per week. “My sister in law used to make milk toffee and I just improvised on the recipe! Before I started making them on a commercial basis, I used to make them only when I visited friends and they pushed me to start putting these into the market,” she says.
The milk toffee she supplies to the Odel outlets are regular toffee with lots of cashew nuts in them while she does make three other variants which are white chocolate, dark chocolate and another with ginger and blackcurrant. These appear to be a popular order especially during the many festive seasons in Sri Lanka.
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She starts her day early, at 8AM and continues until 12PM, when she has to pick her children up from school. She refuses to use any preservatives and this explains the two and a half week shelf life for the milk toffee.
She also undertakes orders for weddings and special events, where she packages the milk toffee in delicate boxes with ribbons. The response has been great, says Nanditha. “I think of this as my hobby because making the milk toffee everyday makes me really happy. The aroma permeates through the whole house and I simply love it. I’ve been doing this single-handedly for the past four and a half years and a few months back, I got another pair of hands to help me with the milk toffee,” she reveals. She received several orders for Avurudu this year. Chuckling, she tells of how people pick a few boxes up before travelling overseas so they can gift it to family and friends.
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The minimum order for the regular milk toffee is 6 pieces while an order for the other variants is a minimum of 20 pieces. Apart from supplying to the main Odel outlet at Alexandra Place, Colombo 07, Nanditha also supplies the milk toffee to the outlets in Kohuwela and Nugegoda in addition to the Aviraté Café, Tasty Caterers (down Fife Road) and the Barefoot Gallery. For orders and more information, check Nandi’s Milk Toffee on Facebook.
By Sarah Kellapatha
Photos by Kushan Pathiraja
0 Comments
Paul says:
Oct 24, 2013 at 12:00 amAbsolutely to die for. Why can't we buy them in Ireland.