The home baker experience- Sweta’s Bakes

Home bakers in Kolkata have got prominence in recent years, thanks to social media including blogs. Some of the city’s known names among food bloggers are home bakers themselves. The advantage of a good home baker, i.e. products that match or are better than the stuff one gets at his/ her favourite cake shop, proximity (say, a neighbourhood baker) and most importantly their ability to make customized cakes which is a cutting edge over the catalogue-based offerings at the cake shops have worked in their favour, I presume. The honesty that goes into a home baker’s fare vis a vis the commercial approach in even the best cake shops is bound to be noticed.

It was my first visit to a home baker and I was looking forward to this Saturday evening invitation last month. When I arrived, my blogger friends were already settled down. There were Indrajit, Manikuntala of Food Rover, Soumya Shankar Ghosal- a passionate photographer who runs the unique photography group Streets of Calcutta with Indrajit, themed on street photography. The group has a Facebook page and its website. There also was Subhajit who’s in charge of IT and digital initiatives at Oxford Bookstore. Mrs Sweta Kumar (the baker) and her family welcomed me to their apartment in Hiland Park, a posh housing complex on EM Bypass in extreme south Kolkata. Sweta operates from here under the name Sweta’s Bakes.

The welcome drink was the refreshing Blue Lagoon. It was followed by freshly fried vegetable spring rolls served with chili Schezwan sauce. The filling was wholesome and tasty and it went well with the tad sweet, runny chili sauce, though I thought the crust could be a bit thinner.

Veg spring roll

Some of the offerings for the evening were laid out on the table. The pretty kiwi cake, the blueberry muffin, the gorgeous Red Velvet cake and the beautiful tarts. I do not have a sweet tooth and I am pretty much a dry cake person. So I got off the mark with the English tea cakes which followed. It was delicious. With a masterly balanced sweetness and the generous dollops of butter used in it, it struck the right chord with my palate with its smell and taste. Indrajit recommended one of the tarts.

 (Clockwise from the top) Chocolate truffle cake, blueberry muffin, kiwi cake and red velvet cake 

Kiwi cake

Chocolate truffle cake

Red velvet cake

English tea cake

Next came the chicken quiche. It was different from the one we see in the cake shops. The filling was inside a tart shell. There was molten cheese on top of the filling. The ingredients were top notch, however, it failed to appeal to me. For quiche, my vote goes for the classic recipe of a soft pastry cup filled with baked chicken with cheese, which is best made at Cakes, the chain shop.

Chicken quiche

I also sampled the blueberry muffin. It was well made, like the tea cake. Sweta was telling us how she became a home baker in a self-taught manner. She attended bakery workshops by chefs but found it difficult to replicate the same cakes baking at home with the same ingredients. We were munching on her special dry chili chicken. It had bell peppers which I like, and the pungency was such that even children would like it. Unfortunately, as I found out, it was not on her menu card, as it takes more effort than baking. Her family supports her endeavour and takes pride in it. While her elder daughter helps her a lot, she also happens to be her toughest critic. And I think it’s bliss to have a sharp critic at home.

Blueberry muffin

Dry chili chicken

We now cut the red velvet cake. And the very first bite got us hooked! We were bowled over by it by the time we finished our slices. Even those who don’t have a sweet tooth will like it. The sponge, the frosting, all were perfect to the core. The frosting tasted better as it was fresh, and the sweetness was just right. The chocolate truffle cake came after this, but I was not in a much of a mood to let the wonderful feeling of the red velvet cake be spoilt by it. I nevertheless tried a small slice, and it was good too. Not overwhelmingly sweet again, with good quality chocolate.

The red velvet cake slice

The chocolate cake

Sweta conducts workshops at her residence (suitable for freshers). A range of cakes, muffins and tarts is taught over 3 hours and participants can take home their baked stuff. It costs Rs 1500 per participant.

Anybody who has a thing for dry cakes can mentally bookmark Sweta’s Bakes. The other cakes and muffins, including choco walnut brownie, are top notch. By the way, she makes pretty good chocolates too. I sampled all this later thanks to her gift hamper.

The homamade chocolates in the brown box

Sweta (Second from left) with family

As the countdown for Christmas has begun, Shweta is preparing to bake plum cake (which is a personal favourite and symbolizes this time of the year to me, among other things) and other Christmas cakes.

The menu says, her dry cakes cost Rs 300-400 per pound (Choco chip cake, date walnut cake, fresh fruit cake, plum cake, rich Christmas cake, brownies, marble cake etc), which is not expensive given the high quality. Cream cakes (Rich chocolate, Black Forest, chocolate truffle cake, red velvet cake etc) also come in the same range, with few costing Rs 250-275 per pound. Other than this, she bakes tarts (Rs 15-25 apiece for an order of 12), cookies (Rs 120-150 for a pack of 12) and muffins (Rs 18-35 per piece for an order of 12). There’s a special red velvet cupcake too, at Rs 40 apiece (for an order of 12). Orders are to be placed one day in advance. ‘Sweta’s Bakes’ is on Zomato (where you can take a look at the complete menu) and a Facebook page by the same name (where you can find latest updates).

For ordering from Sweta’s Bakes, call 9830974709 (If you are a Hiland Park resident, the intercom no. is 48073). There is no home delivery as of now.

Here’s hoping a great Christmas of baking to Sweta.

#HomebakerKolkata #Sweta’sBakes #CakesinKolkata

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The Evening of Eminence at Yauatcha's first anniversary

As the brightest kid on the oriental cuisine map of the city turned a year old recently, it celebrated the occasion, among other things, by meeting a bunch of foodies from diverse fields in what it calls the ‘Evening of Eminence’. This is the name of all such evenings where Yauatcha, the Michelin-starred restaurant at Quest, hosts accomplished people from various fields over dinner. It was an honour to be invited to this edition of Evening of Eminence as a blogger.

  

As I turned up, I was welcomed by Rana Basu Thakur of JLT Solutions (a creative hotshop that handles the advertising and promotions of Yauatcha Kolkata). The long table outside the restaurant on the top floor of the mall was getting filled with guests. Food blogger was one chosen category this time, and there were friends Poorna Banerjee of PresentedbyP  and Indrajit Lahiri of A Bong Petuk’s Diary. Anirban Saha of Kolkata Bloggers  (A platform to unite all bloggers who are connected with Kolkata) joined later.  During the course, I met Karo Kumar who is a senior journalist in The Telegraph. It was pleasing to talk about this blog to her over sips of virgin Lalu (The actual cocktail has vodka. I wanted a non-alcoholic drink for health reasons). The lychee juice along with lemongrass set the palate ready for the variety of dim sums/ dumplings (a forte of Yauatcha), that followed.

 My virgin Lalu

There was a special menu for the evening. In the starters (n0n-veg), arrived Crispy Prawn Cheung Fun, Chicken Dumpling with Celery and Carrot, Xo Dumpling and Crispy Lamb with Raw Mango. I also took Fried Turnip Cake from the veg section. The Crispy Prawn Cheung Fun is my favourite in Yauatcha's dim sums- a soft steamed wrap (like in a dim sum/ momo) of chicken encased prawn, shaped like a thin roll and is served drenched in soy sauce. The wrap melts in the mouth bringing forth the crunchy chicken casing, followed by the juicy and soft, steamed prawn at the core. The chicken and the prawn play the perfect contrast to each other. In the last one year, it has become a signature dish of Yauatcha that reflects its stature of one of the best oriental cuisine destinations in town.

Crispy Prawn Cheung Fun (Photo courtesy: Yauatcha)

 Fried Turnip Cake & Crispy Prawn Cheung Fun

I liked the savory turnip cake. The dumplings at this restaurant are fine dishes, thus they call for an acquired taste. I liked the Xo Dumpling more, made with prawn and topped with mashed egg white. It tasted better with the chili oil (with ginger, garlic etc) and the special chili sauce. The purple hue of the chicken dumpling comes from beetroot. The Crispy Lamb with Raw Mango was good too, with a subtle interplay of the tanginess of raw mango and a dash of sweetness.

Xo Dumpling

 Chicken Dumpling with Celery and Carrot (Centre)

Chili Oil and Chili Sauce

 Crispy Lamb with Raw Mango

The guests were striking conversations among each other. I met Ravi Ranjan of NASSCOM who is part of their start-up incubator called Start-up Warehouse and works in its Kolkata chapter. I am always curious about the start-up scene in the city and it was pleasing to note that so many youngsters are starting up with fresh ideas and also generating both white collar and blue collar jobs. There was Priyanka Bajaj, co-founder of Mera Tiffin (I knew about it when I had met another co-founder Vinay Menon in a blogging workshop of a Facebook food group earlier this year). The start-up on one hand delivers food cooked by home cooks/ chefs and on the other hand, runs a food ordering business, through a website and an app. The core customers of the first service are the students who live in PG/ rented accommodations and miss home food. There also was Rukshana Kapadia who is in a senior position in Switz Foods (owner of the Mio Amore cake shop chain, erstwhile known as Monginis) and actively reviews eateries on Zomato and Facebook under the name ‘The Culinary Commentor’. Rahul Arora, retauranteur, with two ventures- Bon Appetit and Café Prana (on health food theme), introduced himself and was fun to talk to. So did Rohit Arora, who is the Business Head- Kolkata of the food ordering start-up Swiggy which came to Kolkata few months ago.

(From left) Rahul, Poorna and Anirban Saha

 (from left) Rahul, Indrajit and Rukshana

Rana Basu Thakur at the centre

The main course arrived. My pick was Braised Chicken with Mushroom in Claypot, Steamed Red Snapper in Asam Sauce, Ho Fan Noodles and Spicy Vegetable Fried Rice with taro and spring onion. Simply loved the Braised Chicken. The succulent chicken pieces teamed with mushroom in the light gravy with a hint of sweetness worked wonders for my palate. It easily became my other favourite in Yauatcha. Being a ‘fishy’ Bengali I liked the spicy snapper fish dish too. The Ho Fan Noodles was a nice vegetable preparation with flat and wide rice noodles (Ho fan) and soya chunks. I took more of the fried rice which had a balanced spiciness and worked fine for me.

 Braised Chicken with Mushroom in Claypot

Steamed Red Snapper in Asam Sauce

Ho Fan Noodles

Dessert, just like dim sums, happens to be a specialty in Yauatcha and the well-designed dessert platter showed why. It proved enough distraction for almost everyone to stop talking and take a glance at it. It had six varieties of macaroons (a chewy cookie which Yauatcha is especially known for), three types of petite gateaux (cakes, including Raspberry Delice) and three ice-creams. I have known the Raspberry Delice for so long, thanks to Rana da’s posts on Facebook, that I had to try it. The mushy chocolate mousse inside the velvety bright red crust was sublime! The vanilla-black currant ice cream was a superior treat too. And the macaroons, not extremely sweet, were fun bites. They came in strawberry, pistachio, and chocolate flavours among others.

To sum up, an evening to remember! Meeting an eclectic mix of folks over great food, interesting discussions peppered with banter in a relaxed setting.  Wish Yauatcha a great year ahead!

#Yauatcha #YauatchaKolkata #Dimsums #Gateaux #Macaroon #OrientalcuisineKolkata #Foodbloggers #StartupKolkata #NASSCOM #Startupincubator

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The new menu introduction at Cha Bar, Oxford Bookstore

I was curious about this place inside the Oxford Bookstore at Park Street for a long time but never happened to be here. So when Indrajit, a blogger friend, said they were launching a new menu and asked whether I would be interested to join as they would like to meet some bloggers in this regard, I had no reason to think over it.

So we met up at this Sunday afternoon last month. Apart from Indrajit there were Soumya, Manikuntala, Sammya Brata and Preeti (Met all the latter three for the first time, though the first two among these are Facebook friends for some time). This is a spacious L-shaped café on the mezzanine floor overlooking the bookstore, tastefully decorated with innovative wall art which has a lot of tea trivia. The longest wall is  intricately done up with art decor and it clearly sets it apart from other cafes. There are stools and chairs (two and four-seater) to sit, and wooden seats attached to the wall. It is a nice place for a relaxed chat with friends/ colleagues/ business contacts. One can carry a book from the shelves and browse it here over tea and snacks instead of standing near the bookshelves. 

We were soon joined by Nitin Warikoo, the national Head of Cha Bar and Business Development. He shared with us how he sees Cha Bar going forward. It was a free-flowing, interactive discussion.

Cha Bar has seven outlets across India, all inside Oxford Bookstore. After tasting success under the umbrella of the famous bookstore, it wishes to expand and go solo in small steps. Right now the menu is going through a change in phases to enhance the customer experience. Nitin told about their Delhi outlet which is more of a restaurant, offering a wide range of food, including thin crust pizza- a specialty. Menu engineering has been done to optimize the offering. The response to this outlet has prompted the management to think of expansion.

 Nitin (extreme left) with the bloggers (Soumya, Indrajit, Manikuntala- second from left to right)

I asked Nitin about the tea trivia on the wall, and he said they chose the form as they wanted to educate customers about tea in a fun way.

The menu is dominated by a wide range of tea, as expected, including Darjeeling, Assam and Nilgiri. The Darjeeling and Assam varieties come from their (Apeejay group’s) own tea estates. The menu covers practically all conceivable varieties of tea over thirteen pages, including organic, decaf, herbal, green, fruit fusion, Ayurvedic, Chinese teas and an uncommon Indian variety like oolong tea which has a small production).

A special one page menu was made for our meet and presented to each one of us, comprising seventeen handpicked varieties of tea, some veg and non-veg snacks, cakes and muffins.

Nitin strongly recommended the hot new entrant in the menu- Fish n Chips- and claimed that they’ve taken enough care to ensure that it is the best in town. Apart from that we ordered Bollywood Mix Masala Cha, Arabic Spice tea, Roast Chicken and Mayo Sandwich, Squished Egg and Kasundi Mustard sandwich and Cheese and Tomato Sandwich. I ordered an iced tea as I wasn’t feeling like having a hot beverage. The waiter was smartly dressed in their black t-shirt and white brimless cap.

The sugar pouch case

Food arrived in a while as we kept chatting with Nitin. The food comes from The Park, which is in the Apeejay group that owns Oxford Bookstore. I loved the Roast Chicken and Mayo Sandwich. The chicken was tender and the mayo was generous. At Rs 110, it’s not expensive given the quality. I am fond of the chicken and egg sandwich at Just Baked which has mustard in it. Mustard, mixed with boiled egg in the right measure, can bring out a different taste of the bland egg. The Squished Egg and Kasundi Mustard sandwich was good too though I felt it could be better if the egg was uniformly cut into tiny pieces.

Roast Chicken and Mayo Sandwich

Squished Egg and Kasundi Mustard sandwich

Enter the Fish n Chips, piping hot. Succulent, flaky fish encased in a thin crust. It was delicious and surely compares with the best in town, I felt. It vanished from the plate in no time and we asked for a repeat. Two longer and one short piece of fried fish with tartar sauce and finger chips at just Rs 130 is a killer deal! They use basa fish (which has become a common substitute for bekti in the Kolkata F&B circuit) as for them it is easy to get a consistent quality compared to bekti.

A word on Bollywood Mix Masala Cha- it is your regular masala tea served in a kettle decorated with Pakistani-style truck art of Hindi film stars. The tea is poured in glass (as it is with cutting chai of Mumbai). Indrajit is the virtual brand ambassador of masala tea and he liked it.

If you like the kettle, you can even buy one off the shelves near the counter. 

 The kettle up for grabs

Indrajit pouring Arabic Spice tea

As I understood, they offer tea and good food at a reasonably cheaper price than comparable joints so that it compliments the bookstore experience well. The tea starts at just Rs 34! It should also appeal to those who just look for good food in a good ambience. The value seekers may like this place more than Flury’s and Au Bon Pain which are good but definitely overpriced. Cha Bar is also very particular about how a beverage or a food item is served and love to innovate on it. Learnt that they are going to introduce pasta this winter. Pasta lovers may note.

The muffins on the upper rack

Out chat and banter and food photography went on for some time before we bid adieu. The kettle of the masala tea got great attention form those among us with a passion for photography (Sammya, Preeti and Soumya).  It was a Sunday afternoon well spent in a relaxed way. Would like to come back especially for the Fish n Chips.

The kettle photo session in progress

View of bookstore from Cha Bar

#ChaBar #ChaBarKolkata #OxfordBookstore #FishnChips

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