Tikon Lai

The making is the same honest mixture as the rest of the family: sesame toasted until fragrant, folded into melted gur at the right stage, spread into a sheet. Then comes the step that gives tikon lai its name. The sheet is cut into triangles in the short window while it can still be cut cleanly. Leave it too long and the sheet shatters instead of slicing, and you have expensive crumbs. Cut too early and the pieces slump and stick. When the edges are clean and the points are sharp, the maker got it right.

The triangle earns its keep at portion time, too. One piece is a natural serving, crisp and satisfying with tea, and the tray does not invite the endless hand-in-the-jar grazing that a bowl of loose sweet does. It remains a sweet: sesame is good food, gur is sugar in a warmer coat, and I will not pretend otherwise. Enjoyed a piece at a time, it is one of the most civilised sweets we sell.

Keep the pack airtight and dry. Jaggery based sweets soften in damp air and the pieces will weld themselves together in a humid week, which spoils the whole point of the neat cut. In a sealed jar in a cool corner, tikon lai keeps its crunch and its edges for several weeks. The rest of the family, til lai slabs and til ladoo, is in the sweet snacks collection, with everything priced in the dry fruits price list.

What does tikon mean? Triangle. Tikon lai is the triangular cut of the sesame and jaggery sheet, the same family as til lai, shaped for trays, gifts and tidy packing.

Does tikon lai taste different from til lai? Barely. The mixture is the same tradition. The triangle is about the cut and the presentation; some people swear the pointed pieces crunch better, and I am not going to argue with them.

WD Foods is the online store of Wahid Nimco, Quetta, since 1990. Tikon lai is Rs 1,000 a kilo, delivered across Pakistan in 3 to 5 business days. The Masjid Road shop is open every day, 9 AM to 10 PM.