Jackson Heights has a Sweet Tooth
By Brooke Wyatt and Gabby Schwartz
It is lunch hour in Jackson Heights, and Maharaja Sweets is bustling with customers, hungry for authentic Indian sweets.
“What we are making is completely different from everybody else,” Bawa said. “It’s made from good stuff and honesty.”
Sukhdev Bawa, the owner of Maharaja Sweets, is originally from Punjab, India. He moved to Brooklyn 35 years ago with his family before moving to Jackson Heights where he opened Maharaja Sweets. The sweet shop is located on 73–10 37th Avenue between Taj Grocery and Khan Appliances Plus Inc.
Before Bawa opened Maharaja Sweets in Jackson Heights, he worked in construction to raise the money needed to open the shop. He learned to create the different sweets and snacks in India, where Maharaja Sweets is a family business opened by his parents 40 years ago. It closed after Bawa and his family immigrated to New York and started their own shop.
The display case is the first thing one sees upon entering the store. Eighty-five different desserts are arranged according to color and vary from a cyclamen pink to a pistachio green tint. A dense aroma of sweetness and warm sugar invites the customers to indulge.
“Our quality is better than others around,” Bawa said. “Our ingredients come from India.”
The art behind the display case really takes place underneath the shop. It begins with two women, working 10 hours every day of the week, who operate the machines that formulate the sweets.
Many of the treats require a meticulous two-day process in order to prepare them properly. One dessert, malai chamcham, starts with milk. The milk is then churned and turned into a cheese. The women let it sit for a day to absorb moisture and then they add sugar. It’s wrapped up in an edible tin foil for presentation.
Two other commonly purchased sweets are gulab jamun, and kesar ladoo.
The gulab jamun has a look that is analogous to a doughnut hole. The exterior is syrupy and sticky with sugar. Inside is a coinciding fluffy cake texture.
“Many of the places around here make their gulab jamun with a hard center,” Bawa said. “The best ones are soft.”
The kesar ladoo is similar in shape and size to the gulab jamun but is a fluorescent shade of orange. It is cooked by frying small pieces of saffron mixture in shortening and then coating them with sugar. The ball is made up of small, individual pieces. The taste is savory and peppery, but sweet like syrup.
Maharaja Sweets sells fresh food all day long and whatever is not sold is thrown out.
“When we make, we make a lot,” Bawa explained.
The alluring desserts aren’t the only aspect that attracts the customers — Maharaja Sweets also promises that every item is organic and vegetarian, catering to India’s large vegetarian population. According to Raw Food Health, about 40 percent of India’s population is vegetarian.
The shop is busiest in the evenings and on weekends, and summer is their busiest season.
“People stop in on their way home from work and buy pounds,” said Bawa.
Over 16 years of operation, Bawa said, the shop’s sales have increased in sales 22 to 25 percent per year.
Customers come from all over and have various ethnicities including Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, and American.
One Pakistani customer from Atlantic City orders sweets in bulk when having a party or other celebratory event. There are three major Indian festivals in Jackson Heights and on each one Maharaja Sweets is jam-packed.
There are five other sweet shops on the same street as Maharaja Sweets, but Bawa said he is not worried about competition, because he takes pride in the quality of the food and ensures each product is unique.
Most items, if not all, are made from milk and dried fruit. The benefit of dried fruit is that it gives each dessert a natural, but not overbearing sweetness.
“We don’t use too much sugar so you can have more,” Bawa explained. “Other places you have one and you don’t want more.”
Although his children don’t plan on taking on the business, he is proud of what he has accomplished.
“People give me a lot of respect. They appreciate what we do,” Bawa said. “As long as I live, I will own this place.”
