Pootharekulu in record books

A group of cooks from East Godavari prepared a 10.5 mt long Andhra’s popular sweet delicacy, Poothareku, and secured a place in India Book of Records as the world’s longest Poothareku.

Generally, a Poothareku is 5-6 inches long.

In an attempt to popularise Andhra cuisine, the AP Tourism department had embarked on various programmes, including attempting such records.

It took six hours for the cooks to prepare the world’s longest Poothareku at Bern Park in the city.

The representatives of India Book of Records handed over the Certificate of Record to Andhra Pradesh tourism secretary Mukesh Kumar Meena and Andhra Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (APTDC) MD Himanshu Shukla this evening, after completion of making the sweet delicacy.

“We have planned various such programmes to popularise Andhra cuisine. This 10.5 mt Poothareku was prepared using traditional method. We are also imparting training to chefs across the state in preparing Bongu Biryani, which we have decided to include as a delicacy in the authentic Andhra cuisine. Food festivals are also in the pipeline,” said Mr Meena.

Andhra Pradesh, which is trying to promote native cuisine beyond boundaries, on the lines of Hyderabadi biryani and haleem, is also getting ready to apply for Geographical Indication (GI) tag for some of its prized delicacies to claim exclusivity.

Initially, the state tourism department had identified three delicacies to approach GI registry for the coveted tag.

They are Kakinada gottam kaja, Pootharekulu, native to East Godavari district, and Ulavacharu, which originated in Krishna district.

It is a wafer-like sweet created in Atreyapuram, a village and mandal in East Godavari.

'Pootha' is coating and 'Reku' (plural Rekulu) is sheet in Telugu.

Pootharekulu are also known as ‘Paper sweets’ as they give the appearance of folded paper

It is made from rice starch/finely ground soaked in black gram ,powdered sugar and ghee.

This sweet is prepared by making wrappers from rice flour, put sugar inside it and folding them.

Pootharekulu is made from a particular kind of rice batter called jaya biyyam combined with powdered sugar and ghee.