Perfect place to unwind - Unwine, The Sonnet

The Sonnet is a gorgeous property very close to City Centre, Saltlake; it is a 4-star business hotel and houses all-day dining restaurant, lounge, and a well-stocked bar. I am regular in this part of the city but I was quite unaware about the bar and its offerings until I attended a cocktail tasting session at this place. The bar is called Unwine. And as the cleverly coined name indicates it is one laid back spot to unwind and relax. This cool bar with huge range of spirits, wines, etc serves innovative and artsy cocktails and mocktails that entices you and in turn helps you let it all go. The bar mostly has got in-house guests who are anyway super chilled out since they know they can keep on drinking since they are anyway staying at the same hotel and they are free to create fuss, we experienced one such esteemed guest during our visit who was creating quite a bit of nuisance. But anyway, we carried on with our tasting session which went very well and the mocktails and cocktails which were served looked amazing when they were queued up together.

Unwine, which is at the Ground floor of Sonnet (right opposite the Aura restaurant) looks a bit cramped up but it is actually L-shaped and as you move on you will discover the other end of the ‘L’ shaped area where you will find a large wall mounted television screening live sports, etc which you can enjoy while sitting at the comfy couches placed nearby. I preferred settling down in the couches rather than sitting on the high bar stools. The bar is very neatly decked up with strategically placed lights and well lit background shelves stacked with the likes of Glenmorangie, Talisker, Glenkinchie, Caol Ila, Black Label, Jack Daniels, etc. The overall interiors, lighting, chandeliers, single sofa seats with small table in front, optimally spaced seating, everything adds to the positive of this place.

Coming a bit to the service - the bartender, the in-charge, and other staffs everyone was very polite and courteous and helped us the way the situation demanded. The service was prompt and the drinks were prepared with lovely brisk pace and appreciable concentration. Though you can opt to display some bartending skills as well when you gave got guests invited and waiting in front of you for the final product that you are preparing.

Now coming to the items we tried that evening, here is the list and a brief description against each. So here we go –

a) Pinacolada – This was the best cocktail of the evening for sure, so I am giving the good news in the beginning itself! It was served in a whole pineapple topped with couple of little umbrellas to give that chilled out feel to it. It was surely high on innovation quotient and should be one of the signature drinks of Unwine. The cocktail had got 60 Ml of White Rum, correct proportion of coconut cream, 60 Ml of Pineapple juice and then all the ingredients were blended properly and served in a whole pineapple. It was garnished with a slice of pineapple. Please try this one out if you are here at Sonnet.                    

b) Cucumber Rocks – It is one lovely looking green colored mocktail served in Martini glass. It has got 60 Ml cucumber juice, lemon juice, correct amount of rock salt, sugar syrup and some crushed ice. All the ingredients were being mixed together and then they were poured over the crushed ice. It was garnished with ring of cucumber and a cherry. Nice refreshing drink.

c) Water melon Mojito – For all the water melon lovers this drink is surely for you provided you are all set to taste it with white rum. This red colored drink was again served in a martini glass and had 60 Ml White Rum, mint, sugar, lemon juice, mashed water melon juice and ice. Here, the mint was crushed first and added sugar with lemon juice, then the glass was filled up with ice and topped with water melon juice. It was then garnished with slice of water melon. I expected a bit more punch in this drink which can be looked upon.

d) Hot Beer – The name is quite catchy since you don’t have your beer when hot. Here also you need not taste hot beer literally. This was served in a beer mug, and we give a stir to the green chilli, sugar, lemon juice, chat masala, 330 Ml of beer and some ice to prepare the final drink which didn’t have any garnish. It was okay according to me.

e) Ginger Rock Salt Delight – This is a mocktail that was presented in a Colins glass garnished with a zest of lemon. All the ingredients (like lemon, ginger flakes, rock salt, chat masala, 90 Ml 7UP, 60 Ml Coke) were put into a glass filled with ice and then it was topped up with some Coke. It tasted pretty good and is worth recommending to others.

f) Vodka Rasila – As the name suggests it is a cocktail served in a old fashioned glass with an orthodox garnish of lemon and cherry. The drink tasted pretty interesting and relaxing and the credit goes to the right mix of Aam Panna, mango juice, Sugar syrup, lemon juice and 60 Ml Vodka.

Chili Guava

g) Chili Guava – To start with, I really liked the late spicy sensation of the chili in that drink which was served with a garnish of lemon wedge and a slit of chili. The drink was prepared with the elements like – 90 Ml of Guava juice, 5 Ml of Lemon juice, Sugar Syrup, Rock Salt, Chaat masala and Tobasco.

h) Passionate Kiss – This is a beer based cocktail served in a martini glass with garnish of a full strawberry. It contains 60 Ml of Beer with 30 Ml of Tequilla. It also has four pieces of strawberry, lemonade and crushed ice. All these elements were blended nicely but I guess the proportions this time failed to impress me and I felt this drink was expected to deliver a bit more kick.

So, that last drink marked the end of our tasting session at the launch of their summer special cocktails and mocktails, attended along with other Panchphoron members. Overall I will give this place close to 70% positive feedback. To summarize, the drinks were nice and the innovation quotient was appreciated though a bit more intensity would have been highly appreciated in these drinks and I am not talking about kick of the spirit used, but the overall proportions. But hopefully Unwine will attract more eyeballs in the coming days in a positive way and it’ll help people unwind real fast.

Cheers!  

 

Food Tasting session at BARCELOS, Kolkata

Well, couple of months ago I was excited to even discover that Barcelos is all geared up to set its footprints in the city of joy, so the day when I was driving through the busy city traffic to attend a food tasting session at this place my excitements knew no bound :) Barcelos, as we all know, is a South Africa-based restaurant chain that opened up its first outlet in Pretoria, South Africa in 1993. The use of secret spices and signature recipes mastered by the Portuguese hundreds of years ago made Barcelos’ flame grilled flavors very well accepted. So they went on to franchise this business in the year 1998.

Interiors of Barcelos, Kolkata

And thus Barcelos started spreading its wings and opened up outlets in 18 countries including South Africa, Canada, UK, Dubai, Lesotho, Botswana, Zambia, Mauritius, Singapore, Namibia, Mozambique, Ghana, Nigeria, Sudan, Oman, and in India. It has got nearly 153 restaurant outlets all over the world. And with its newest outlet in Kolkata it has made sure it reaches out to the food loving Kolkatans first, right after it has stepped into India with its Delhi outlets.

Classy wooden finished wall

As far as I know, Barcelos will have its presence in 10 metro cities of the country with more than 20 outlets in the next five years since they see India as one of the biggest opportunities to expand their brand. But before I move on to the food review let me just let you know why this place is called Barcelos. The restaurant chain is actually named 'Barcelos' after a quaint Portuguese town called Barcelos in the Braga district that is famous for an ancient legend of the well-known Barcelos rooster. Hence you can find that rooster in the logo of this restaurant chain. This famous rooster of Barcelos town is also called ‘Galo de Barcelos’ in Portuguese and it is one of the most common emblems of Portugal.

Seating arrangements

This newest outlet has been opened up in the Acropolis Mall, Kolkata which is opposite the Chamber’s Mall and beside Gitanjali Stadium. This casual dining specialist is all set to welcome you at the fourth floor, just above the mall food court. It is located just beside the Asia Kitchen.

While you enter the place you will notice a covered outdoor seating on your right hand side which is unique to Barcelos. No other eatery in Acropolis mall has got this Al Fresco dining arrangement. But it’s only when you step inside this casual dining restaurant that you feel that you are at the right place and you can’t wait a moment to chomp those colorful signature mini burgers or those lip smacking peri peri grilled chickens. The overall ambiance is very robust yet very classy. It has got an overall woody and countryside feel to it where the flame grilled chicken and other stuffs fit in perfectly.

Barcelos, Kolkata welcomes you with the molecular mocktails! - Berry Cucumber 

The optimally designed furniture along with comfy colorful couches reminds you the emphasis is mostly going to be on food and beverages. The world-class interiors with spacious  seating are mostly taken to another level with the wooden finished walls, strategically fitted lights, wooden flooring, illuminated world map showing the presence of Barcelos across the globe, a perfect bar counter, huge wall paintings, dramatic yellow lighting and of course that red Smoking booth in there, everything seems to be just perfect!

The red smoking booth

Now coming to the food and beverages section. As we start talking about the food, we should first talk about the signature Peri Peri sauces which are imported from South Africa and you will find four bottles of these sauces with different shades of spiciness available at each and every table. They are Tangy Lemon, Mild Peri, Very Peri and Supa Peri. Remember to use these sauces whenever you feel like to make your dish even more appetizing. Anyway, here are the beverages and dishes that we had tried:

> > > B E V E R A G E S:

We tried the molecular mocktails which were a visual treat when served and explicitly added much excitement and thrill to mark the onset of the amazing food journey at Barcelos. So pouring of liquid nitrogen while serving these drinks was common which resulted in releasing thick fumes which you can imagine to be ‘smoke’ covering the foodies and bloggers all around :)

Tangy Mango - molecular mocktail

We were served:

a) Berry Cucumber – This drink was served first which had strawberry syrup with hint of cucumber, topped with orange juice and sprite. Refreshing indeed.

b) Tangy Mango – Oh I found this drink to be just perfect for the hot summer days, very refreshing with that little tangy kick. Even before I realized I finished off my tall glass of Tangy mango, in a jiffy! It had tangy mango puree mixed with spices which was topped with sprite and lastly garnished with a slice of mango.

c) Peachy Iced tea – The drink which I liked next after the tangy Mango was the Peachy Iced tea. It should be heavenly for Ice tea lovers. It had peach fruit puree mixed with homemade ice tea and finally granished with peach slices. Very refreshing indeed.

d) Hey Rosey – This drink was served in a smaller round and curvy glass topped with crushed ice. It had rose syrup mixed with cardamom and rose water topped with sprite and garnished with rose petals. It was tad too rosy for my thorny palate! :)

Peachy Iced Tea

e) Indian Classic Kala Khatta – Well it is kind of a special drink and tries to bring back your childhood kala khatta memories. It has monin pomegranate syrup to mix with spices and lemon juice and finally it is filled up with Coke. Packs quite a punch and gets you glued and promises quite a few sips even if it has to be shared.

Indian Classic Kala khatta

Berry Cucumber

Tangy Mango - tastes awesome!

> > > F O O D:

a) Peri Peri Paneer – The dish contained five sticks of ten cubes of marinated paneers grilled with onions, yellow, green and red bell peppers. The paneer was soft and tasted good but I felt the saltiness of the dish can be tad minimized to make it perfect.

Peri Peri Paneer

b) Grilled Orange with water melon salad – I really loved this salad and was quite pleased to get a fruit salad here since I was unaware about the presence of this salad in their menu. It had assorted lettuce, grilled orange and water melon with basil, honey balsamic dressing and finally garnished with some watermelon seeds. The juicy water melon and oranges are really refreshing to start your meal with. 

Grilled orange with water melon salad

c) Arabic Mezze Platter – This is a veg dish having small bowls of peri hummus, yogurt dip, hummus, baba ganoush, tabouli, falafel, lavash and pita breads. The breads were warm and soft and went well along with the condiments provided. The baba ganoush was a blend of egg plant, tomatoes, onions tahina and spices that tasted really different and suited my palate perfectly.

Arabic Mezze Platter

d) Chicken Espetada – It is one hangling dish skewed with pieces or blocks of chicken breasts sandwiched between slices of bell peppers and onions with French fries. The chicken pieces looked awesome as the whole stuff was drenched in the thick gravy prepared with all the herbs and sauces. The overall dish tasted good though somehow it felt a bit salty but overall it’s something you can order for as your starters.

Chicken Espeteda

  

e) Mini Burgers (Chicken) – This platter contained four chicken burgers which were really meaty and amazingly colorful. This is one of their signature dishes with black, red, white and brown burgers line up in front of you along with a generous amount of potato wedges and a dip. Special mention for the wedges since they tasted amazing, exceeding all the expectations. As a matter of fact, I was informed that all these colored burgers are getting their colors organically i.e. from vegetables or spices and none of them are being colored artificially or using chemicals or colors. All the bergers were generously stuffed with grilled chicken in peri peri sauce along with lettuce, tomato, peri mayo, pickled cucumber, jalapeno, etc. I loved the black and the red burgers most and infact all the four were really well prepared and one should go for this platter of mini burgers to get a quick burger fix.

Chicken Mini burgers

f) Peri Peri Grilled Chicken – We were served a full peri peri grilled chicken which was the dish I was waiting for so long. The chicken seemed to be very well marinated and grilled to perfection along with their signature sauces. It tasted very herbaceous, juicy and honest. You should team it up with couple of Peri Peri sauces which are available on your table to make it tad more spicy and scrumptious.  

Peri Peri Grilled Chicken

Since I was in a hurry and had to rush to another place, I had to skip the desserts, so guess I’ve to be back pretty soon to try them out :)

Hopefully the Iced tea can make me look good!

And yes, here all my pics were clicked by my dear friend Arghyadeep Jana who is really good behind the lens, special thanks buddy!  

This outlet being pretty new, the service is still gaining acceleration and hopefully it’ll come up to speed pretty soon, especially on weekends or on holidays when you have got too many guests to handle all at the same time. On this visit of mine I found the service to be pretty warm and courteous. Special attention, care and information about the dishes were available (from some of the staff members) which made the dining experience even more memorable. Since the joint is new it will be important for every staff member to be very prompt, careful, well-informed and well-trained and I am sure management will keep this in mind for the coming days which will surely be a testing period for this new outlet.

Overall I really enjoyed this experience and I will surely recommend this place to my foodie friends who are a bit skeptical maybe. If you really wanna try out the peri peri grilled chicken you have to visit this place since you won’t get this signature dish anywhere else in the city. Barcelos with its roots in culture, tradition and history offers a healthy, relaxed and convenient casual dining experience for a range of masses with diversified palate. I loved this unique food tasting experience at Barcelos and I am glad that now I can sample the magic of that spicy flame grilled chicken right here in my city. With my arms open I welcome the glowing board of Galo de Barcelos to my city! Hope you guys do well and keep us glued to the magic of these authentic Portuguese flavors.

Cheers!

Amazing Food Tasting session at Aura, Sonnet

If you are keen to express your gratitude or love towards someone or just want to share a token of appreciation with someone then give yourself an excuse to indulge in the scrumptious lunch spread awaiting you on a weekend here at Aura, Sonnet. We all are aware of the fact that we Calcuttans may not be having a real horse in the race but we never do miss out on an opportunity to celebrate and dine-in at the finest of spots spread across the city! And yes definitely Aura is one such place where you will try to get the share of your favorite dishes drenched in the classiest of ambiances.

I had thought Aura as a hub of late night enthusiasts that make it one of the most visited restaurants during midnight. But apart from that it is known for its specialties served during the breakfast, lunch or dinner as well. Basically it is an all day dining destination that you can rely upon round the clock, with your best buddies, esteemed clients or fellow office colleagues.

It has got a relaxed ambiance and spaced out seating arrangements knitted with calm and contemporary elements overlooking a lawn that brings in some soothing quotient in the entire dining episode, especially if you are seated along the glass wall separating you from the lawn outside. The background music is soothing to say the least and with proper acoustics done in the room you will feel the music to be only pleasant. Also we being on a food tasting session received the warmest of welcomes possible, my seat was tagged with a card reading my name; that was really so thoughtful and personalized approach to say ‘hello’ without saying a word. The property (Sonnet) is anyway very pleasant, with unperturbed silence and Aura is just the perfect restaurant that this hotel can have. The classy wooden chairs with sofas, etc make your stay here pretty comfortable. Also when you are checking out the surroundings, then couple of massive cylindrical chandeliers should attract you, together all the elements look great!

Now coming to the kind of food that you’ll be served at this place – here you will get all the awesome cuisines starting from Luncknowi, Bengali, Hyderabadi, South East Asian, Italian, Lebanese, etc. Also the place serves dinner buffet apart from lunch buffets. All the dietary requirements are catered for at this place and guests are free to request special dishes or usual classic favorites. The place also serves breakfast buffet with choice of fruit juices, cereals, tropical fruits, cereals, stewed fruits, yoghurts, freshly baked breads, muffins, pastries, grilled sausages, sautéed mushrooms, fluffy pancakes, baked beans, scrambled eggs, etc. 

At this food tasting event, where I was invited along with other Panchphoron members we were served a plethora of fabulous dishes which only left us overwhelmed and fascinated! So let us start discussing about those awesome dishes and about their ingredients –

---- (MOCKTAILS) ----

All the mocktails served were truly remarkable. They were exceptionally refreshing and helped us to get along with the unmatched marathon of devouring the food items which were being served one after the other. We tried the mocktails like Cucumber Rocks, Pineapple smoothie, Chilli Guava, Ginger Rock Salt Delight. The Chilli guava mocktail will be remembered for a long time for its subtle pinch of heat coming from the chilies hitting after a certain amount of time. While I found the Ginger Rock Salt Delight and Cucumber Rocks mocktails to be extremely refreshing and something that you’ll always hate to share even with your loved ones.  

---- (STARTERS) ----

•  Stuffed Fish Goujons – These amazing looking dish made great impressions with its presentation which were basically the fish fingers stuffed with obviously fresh fish and mint chutney, and coated with roasted papad. This was served with homemade tartar sauce. Really a lovely start to the food fest!

•  Gai Sai Takrai – This is a Thai dish and from the name it is evident that it is a chicken based dish. These were crisp chicken pieces tossed with Thai herbs and fragrant lemongrass. I am tad too critical about Thai dishes and this was okayish according to me.

•  Paneer Aamras ki kebab – This was one star dish in terms of flavor and innovation according to me! Full marks from my side. The jugalbandi of paneer or cottage cheese along with mango is truly unique and that renders a flavor that should really be cherished for a long time. The paneer cubes were marinated with the mango pulp and later cooked in tandoor, so the mango juices sipped deep into the paneer making it extremely soft and juicy! Must try!

•  Badshahi Kumbh –  A heavenly dish for mushroom lovers or in that case for the vegetarians. These are the mushrooms stuffed with cheese and nuts cooked in an intense heat of tandoor. And in the end it tasted great!

•  Chilly Cheese Cigars – The dish was again a medium to get yourself teleported to a wonderland! Mozzarella cheese sticks stuffed with garlic and jalapeno, crumb fried and served with spicy BBQ sauce.

---- (MAINS) ----

•  Chelo kebab – Calcuttans are not unfamiliar with this dish that somewhat defines legends like Peter Cat, but Chelo Kebab here is quite different from that of Peter cat. So if you are madly in love with Peter cat Chelo, then you won’t enjoy this dish here. The dish here is more glued to the roots with elements separated out from the string giving you the freedom to get them into a right proportion before tasting the final product. The platter looks humongous and is sufficient for 3 persons maybe. 

This picture perfect platter contains Persian ground meat kebabs, grilled tomatoes, buttered rice and poached egg placed in an onion ring. The platter was served with several condiments and hummus to go with it.

•  Spinach Cheese Timbale (with tangy BBQ sauce) – This was a plate of nicely presented spinach and ricotta steak, which is grilled to perfection and later served with BBQ sauce.  

•  Basa with sizzled garlic, ginger and tomatoes – This was the oriental side that we were served. The fish in there was fresh and there were exotic veggies like zucchini, broccoli, Chinese cabbage leaves, etc. The overall presentation was appetizing and went well with the noodles.

•  Stir Fried Noodles with Coriander Pesto – Though the dish looked awesome with those overall greenish noodles grinning from there but actually I didn’t find the noodles too promising. It was pretty dry and demanded a side with every morsel. The veggies used were top notch, no doubt about that but finally it ended up to be tad disappointing.

•  Kalo Bhuna Mangsho – These were the living (or rather dead!) specimens of extremely well-done marination and slow cooking! The small bowl of so called ‘kosha mangsho’ stole my heart away! This was a traditional Bangladeshi preparation where slow cooking on mild flame brings the dark color to the mutton and extracts all the trapped juices in the meat. This is cooked with brown onions and celery seeds to give that yum finishing touch that it deserves and finally it is topped with sliced green chilies. Goes great with soft Indian breads which are served in a bread basket on the table. Must try!

•  Makhmali Moti Mahal – These were the soft juicy balls of Malai Kofta cooked in amazingly flavorful rich cashew gravy. The kofta balls were tad smaller than the normal but anyway they tasted great with some roti. Worth a try!

•  Bhatti Nu Dal – The black lentils were cooked in right proportion of ingredients, tomatoes and white butter glazing the top of the dish. The taste was tad subtle unlike the dhabas selling the similar dishes.

 

 ---- (DESSERTS) ----

•  Cream caramel with waffle jalebi – Well, this was the best looking dessert for sure. It was cream caramel topped with whipped cream and crunchy waffle jalebi. Tasted awesome as well, so the looks were not that deceiving :)

•  Kiwi marquis – These were for the cheese lovers. These are the kiwi flavored cheesy delights served in generous blocks (topped with a slice of kiwi), enough for our tasting purpose. The solid brown layer of thin base was holding the dish together taste-wise. The overall taste was good, if not great.

•  Melting Chocolate Mud Pie – Some awesome dish to end our epic food tasting session here at Aura! These were the rich pie stuffed with hot molten chocolate and served with a dollop of vanilla icecream. The molten chocolate oozed out of the otherwise dry pie and when it is mixed with some vanilla ice cream the magic cast by the chef comes to the forefront.

Thus we concluded savoring the delectable spread offered to us here at Aura. It was truly a memorable Sunday afternoon along with the other fellow bloggers. About the service, there were no faults or goof-ups to be very frank, and I was mighty pleased with the servers and their in-depth knowledge about each and every dish which was commendable. The head chef was extremely polite and came to us explaining the dishes, their ingredients and about their origins.

Watch the busy city traffic through the partially frosted glass walls while enjoying the very best of the dishes prepared with utmost care defines your dining experience at Aura. The classy ambiance along with attentive and warm service makes your experience a memorable one for sure. Bring in your family, colleagues and loved ones for a meal that will stay in your memories for years to come. I will give this place close to 80% positive feedback. And I wish the team very best and hopefully they will continue to impress us in the years to come.

Cheers!       

 

Launch of 'Lite Bites' by Melete, New Alipur (Kolkata)

When was the last time you enjoyed a dessert and it was ‘healthy’? Do the words ‘healthy’ and ‘tasty’ go together? Can something healthy be tasty? Are you wondering! Well, don’t think too hard since you have got the answer right here in front of you. You can get all these answers once you finish reading through this blog post. Recently I received an invitation at the launch of ‘Lite Bites’ a product from the bakery called Melete where I was introduced to some products which had the answer to our well-being and the secret to our good health in the coming days. Well, I’ll come to the description of the food items later but let me guide you through this unique concept that can transform the way we eat and live.

Do you use sugar-free products or artificial sweeteners? Are you well aware about their side effects? I only can tell you it has got loads of side-effects and I hate talking about the extreme ones. Instead you can google about ‘Stevia’. Stevia is a natural sweetener or sugar substitute extracted from the leaves of a plant (species - Stevia rebaudiana). Stevia has ‘steviol glycosides’ which have up to 150 times the sweetness of sugar and has negligible effect on blood glucose. Isn’t that wonderful? Here at Melete you get cookies and brownies prepared with stevia that is healthy, has no ill-effects and is tasty at the same time. Melete, in partnership with Janus Lifesciences, has launched Lite Bites. True to its name, Lite Bites is a healthier cookie made with multigrains like suji, maida, wheat along with stevia in it. Indeed an amazing product for diabetics with sugar craving.

By the way, let us come back a bit to the introduction of Melete. It is a six months old bakery based in New Alipore and specializes in brownies, cookies and pastries having some interesting flavors. They have a range of interesting brownie flavors including coffee, butterscotch, peanut butter, and jam swirl. Also the products from Melete are mostly eggless and they use the natural Stevia as sugar substitute. Though they do not have dine-in facilities but you can order from this place or opt for take-away from the address mentioned in Zomato.

Their new product ‘Lite Bites’ helps you indulge in some dessert without consuming loads of sugar. One box of Lite Bites 300 grams is priced at INR 150 and 400 grams is priced at INR 300. It is manufactured in Kolkata and will be available in stores in some time. Now let us discuss about these Lite Bites food items and other snacks items which were tasted on this visit of mine along with other Panch phoron members.   

First let us list down the food items in the ‘Lite Bites’ package of healthy cookies which had 3 types of variants prepared with various grains like Suji, Whole Wheat and Maida.

a) Whole wheat cookies – Nicely shaped cookie with a bit dry texture and taste of aata in it. A bite of it will let you know how healthy it is. It has got a lovely fluffy texture and should go well along with some tea or coffee.

b) Suji cookies – As the name says, the cookie is made with suji or semolina. The cookie has got the overall typical coarse middling texture to it that is derived from the semolina grains. Tastewise it can be a bit sweeter for my liking, guess a bit more stevia will do the trick.

c) Maida cookies – In the pack of Lite Bites, this cookie looks a bit different. It has got some sesame seeds sprinkled over it and can be distinguished easily. Taste-wise I felt it tasted tad better than the other two cookies and had a subtle hint of sweetness which was just perfect for my palate since I try to avoid overtly sweet stuffs.   

Also we had tasted:

a) Peanut Butter brownie – To start with, I honestly loved all the three brownies. The peanut butter ones were very soft and fluffy and they were really tasty. Peanut butter in any case is a healthy nutritious eating option and these cookies were bursting with healthy elements, goodness and flavors to be true. It had some little bits of crushed peanuts and a nice glazed coating on the top.

  

b) Coffee brownie – The brownie was again fluffy with a mild coffee flavor, that’s not too bitter or strong. There is again a thin ganache on top to make things perfect. 

c) Butter Scotch brownie – I loved this the most; maybe it perfectly suited my taste buds! It had a subtle butter scotch flavor to it and yes, overall the brownie was very soft and that just melts in the mouth, just packed with all the goodness.

d) Coconut bread with Lemon Curd – Again this was very well prepared (topped with a cashew nut) with that aroma of coconut keeping you glued to the dish, though I felt it was tad dry but that’s why you have that awesome lemon curd to go with it.

  

e) Cheese Tarts – The tart was nice and freshly baked, the cup was perfect and shallow though the crust seemed not that light brown in color. The cheese filling was nice but it did not taste that great as it was not warm, so make sure you have it when it’s warm.

f) Focaccia with Yogrut Dip – The focaccia bread was nice and soft, surely the dough was prepared well and mixed well with all the ingredients (like flour, salt, sugar, oregano, etc) in there. Had the toppings of cheese, bits of onion and bell peppers. Though again I had this not so warm and realized it would have tasted great if I had it warm.

Now that concluded the tasting session for the day and in the end we realized the importance of healthy eating and that it can be paired with tasty dishes as well. I was glad that I was introduced to some healthy desserts and surely this can be such a boon for many I know, who crave to have some brownies but can’t since they are diabetic. Surely here you get the healthier versions of those sinful brownies. In the coming days, Melete will come up with more and more flavorful yet healthy food products and items and hope we all will be benefited from this endeavor. I would like to thank Anjee and Pritha for this invitation. Wishing Anjee and her team all the best, hope Melete will bring in more smiles to so many faces out there in the coming days.

Cheers! 

 

Food Tasting session at Balaram Mullick – Summer-special Mango flavored sweets

When you are reviewing Balaram Mullick & Radharaman Mullick Sweets, you know you are not writing about just another sweet shop with some run of the mill fare; though I have written about couple of outlets of Balaram Mullick in the past but this review will always be very special since here I was invited to their New Alipore outlet to taste the special Mango flavored sweets and savories which were being launched as a summer-special fare.

When I reached the place the first thing I did was to meet the owners and to express my age-old admiration and love for their sweets which have always been like a rebel breaking the rules and redefining the standards & laws of this business since ages. They have been serving lip-smacking sweet dishes for past few generations now. I remember how my grandfather used to love their sweets, and the love for Balaram Mullick’s sweets has been running in our genes for ages now. I am in general not very fond of sweets or milk-based products but Balaram Mullick’s sweets have always been an exception. I can gobble down their 4-5 sweets at one shot, but otherwise I stay away from sweet dishes in general.

Their sweets spell magic that comprises of the constant factors of transformation and innovation. The sweets have their distinct characteristic and a soul that is pure, honest and necessarily sweet :) So even if you are not having a sweet tooth, it is definite that you can not ignore this brand and I believe that demands extreme expertise of the subject.

Anyway let us come back to the latest experience of mine which revolved ‘round some amazing food tasting along with other Panchphoron members. This shop is not that spread-out like some of their other outlets, and so the entrance is also not that elaborate either. But locating this shop should still not be an issue since it is located opposite to the New Alipore branch of SBI (State Bank of India). The shop is basically a long alley where customers line up with the long display of sweets running along this alley triggering steady flow of appetite and sweet cravings!

Now let us check out the sweet dishes which were launched and the ones which I had tried on this occasion. The summer special mango-based sweets which were on display were –

a) Mango Baked Rosogolla – Most of us know that baked rosogolla in general is one of the signature dishes of Balaram Mullick, and with the introduction of mango baked rosogolla you get the goodness and yumminess of baked rosogolla in your favorite mango flavor and aroma.

b) Mango talshash / jolbhora – I really liked these sweets which had mango flavored filling or rather jelly staffed inside the sandesh. Tasted awesome with all the lip-smacking goodness trapped inside!

c) Mango Truffle – The white colored sweet with choco chips on top looks gorgeous especially when presented with real mango leaves, tasted great as well.

d) Chocolate Bonbon – Piece of heaven for chocolate lovers, for the ones who love chocolate flavored sandesh. This looks awesome with that leafy structure and tastes great.

e) Fresh Mango Juice – Thick mango juice, the sight of this can make you go crazy on a hot summer day!

f) Mango Rajbhog – There is nothing more to tell about rajbhog and rosogolla if you are discussing about Kolkata sweets, these are sort of pre-requisites. And so, that mango flavor infused in the huge rajbhogs are a true treat and quite filling as well.

g) Mango Dahi – As we Bengalis call this dish ‘aam doi’, it is quite common these days in several sweet shops and eateries but it is hard to replace the flavor of Aam Doi available at this place. With the essence of real mango, the flavor is just elevated to a whole new level.

h) Gulab patti sandesh – The rosy aroma of this sandesh was enticing though I felt it was tad too dry for my liking. A bit more moisture can be trapped inside for that pleasing after-effect.

i) Mango Gelato – This is a high demand item and moves fast, had tasted this before so it tastes as good as it used to be.

Also there were several other mango-flavored sweets which I haven’t tasted ever before, like – Mango Lava, Fresh Mango, Mango Ghoti (Amrito Kumbho), Anondo Anarosh, Mango Jolshonkho, Mango dry fruit flower and the Patishapta.

Overall, the Bengali sweets or rather the vast range of ‘mishti’ always keeps me glued to this trusted brand name in this niche domain of modern Bengali sweets. And on top of that, the mango flavored sweets were just a treat to have. Thank you for these complimentary sweet dishes and for having me over. I am quite certain that people would love these mango flavored sweets like I did. Hope this place keeps on serving us amazing Bengali sweets for the coming centuries like it has been doing. Long live the legend!   

Cheers!