To cook something from one's own culture is one thing and to cook from another is an altogether exhilarating experience. As soon as the recipes for ICC were announced, I was ecstatic. The challenge was to try at least 2 recipes and also to make sure that we tried which we have never made before. It suited me perfectly. There were many recipes which I had not even heard before - so I was looking forward to making each one of them.

The first thing that caught my eyes was the name - Nugul untallu. I have quite a handful of Andhra Friends with one of them being my best gal pal. They do know how hard I try to speak in my broken (..mm OK almost shattered) Telugu. But I can't help it - the language has attraction. Hence I started off making the authentic named recipes with Black Sesame Ladoos being the first. I have never used black sesame in my cooking before hence this recipe was a must try for me. I din''t know how it should taste, how it should have looked etc, but I pretty much followed the recipe instructions and it came out great. We liked it and my better half actually finished it off. Of course we had a good time chanting the name 'Nugul Untallu' so many times - no not making fun of it - although it might have sounded like one - but it was so catchy!! So here is what I did with this traditional Andhra Sweet.