Raj's Corner sells gulab jamun at the sweets counter on Beaumont Street, Hamilton. $2.80 a piece, $32.00 a kilo. Black Jamun, the darker cousin, is the same price.
116 Beaumont Street, Hamilton. Gulab jamun sits on the sweets counter alongside the curries, sold loose by the piece at $2.80 or by the kilo at $32.00. Buy one after a meal, or take a kilo home for a gathering. Black Jamun is on the same counter at the same price, which is not something every Newcastle shop carries.
Gulab jamun is the Indian sweet most Australians have already met, usually as the small round thing that turns up at the end of a curry dinner. It is a dumpling made from milk solids, fried until it takes on a deep warm colour, then soaked in sugar syrup until it is heavy with it. The texture is soft the whole way through, closer to a wet sponge than a doughnut, and the flavour is straightforwardly sweet and dense. There is no crunch and no filling. That is the whole point of it.
Because it is soaked rather than iced, it carries syrup with it. Served warm toned and glossy, one piece is rich enough to finish a meal on its own. Most people eat it slowly, with a cup of tea, rather than working through a plate of them.
Black Jamun is the same idea taken further. It is fried longer and darker, so the outside is deeper in colour and the flavour is a little more caramelised behind the syrup. If you find standard gulab jamun a bit plain, black jamun is the one to try next. Both are $2.80 a piece and $32.00 a kilo at the counter.
Gulab jamun is one line on a counter of many. If you want to see the range before you choose, the guide to Indian sweets in Newcastle walks through what is on offer, and the page on Bengali sweets in Newcastle covers the milk and syrup family that rasgulla and rasmalai belong to.
It is sold loose, so you set the amount. There is no fixed box and no minimum.
At $2.80 a piece you can add a single gulab jamun to a curry order and finish on something sweet. This is the usual way people buy it, and it is the easiest way to try the counter without committing.
$32.00 a kilo, weighed out at the counter. Ask for the weight you want rather than a number of pieces, since they are sold by weight and sized by hand.
Gulab Jamun and Black Jamun are the same price, so a kilo can be split between them. Side by side the colour difference is obvious and people tend to have a favourite quickly.
Put gulab jamun on an online order, or pick it up at the counter when you collect a curry.
Gulab jamun is the entry point. These are the sweets people move to next.
The other syrup soaked sweet, and the closest thing to gulab jamun on the counter. Pale rather than dark, lighter and springier, sitting in a thinner syrup. Try it if you found gulab jamun a touch heavy.
Coiled, bright orange and syrup soaked like the jamuns, but crisp instead of soft. The contrast of the two is why they often end up in the same box.
Soft discs sitting in sweetened milk rather than syrup. Milder and cooler than gulab jamun, and the one to order if you want something less intense after a big curry.
Flaky and glazed, with a bit of structure to it. Sweet without the syrup soak, so it travels better than the jamuns if you are taking sweets somewhere.
Gulab Jamun is $2.80 per piece and $32.00 per kilo at the sweets counter at 116 Beaumont Street, Hamilton. Black Jamun is the same, $2.80 per piece and $32.00 per kilo. It is sold loose, so you can buy a single piece to finish a meal or have a kilo weighed out to take home.
Gulab jamun is a dumpling of milk solids, fried until deep and warm in colour, then soaked in sugar syrup. It is soft the whole way through with no filling and no crunch, and it is sweet and dense rather than delicate. The syrup is what gives it the glossy look and the weight in the hand.
Black jamun is the darker, deeper fried cousin of gulab jamun. It is taken further in the fryer, so the outside is darker and the flavour picks up a more caramelised note behind the syrup. Both are on the counter at $2.80 per piece and $32.00 per kilo, and not every Newcastle shop stocks the black version.
They are sold by the piece, so one or two each is plenty after a meal. For a gathering, buy by the kilo at $32.00 and have it weighed at the counter. Because the pieces are sized by hand, ask for a weight rather than a number and the counter will sort it out.
Either. You can add it to an online order, or pick it up at the counter when you collect a curry. Stock on the sweets counter varies by day, so if you are making a special trip for gulab jamun or black jamun, call (02) 4962 1827 first and we will tell you what is out that day.
We are at the Hamilton end of Beaumont Street, with the family Indian grocery next door. Order at the counter and eat in the dining room, take sweets away with a curry, or order ahead. Our second shop, Raj's Corner Newcastle at 126 Darby Street, Cooks Hill, keeps its own menu and prices.