43 New-to-Me ... #14 Soan Papdi

The final new-to-me food that I tried with my former coworkers was a dessert called soan papdi ("traditional Indian flaky sweets with almonds and pistachios," according to the box.) 

To call these "flaky" was a bit like calling water wet. This odd dessert was essentially a big stack of flakes balanced on top of each other. How on earth they took the gorgeous photo on the box is a complete mystery to me. It was very tricky getting them out of the package even partially intact. Most of us ate ours with a spoon because it simply wouldn't hold together into the finger food we'd assumed it would be.

However, despite flaking into a pile that looked not unlike fish food, the soan papdi was DELICIOUS. It was sweet, but not too sweet, with the perfect amount of almond and pistachio flavor, with just a hint of cardamom. It literally melts in your mouth. Three of us gave it a 9, one an 8 and one a perfect 10.