Bellaria Ice creams

When you have an insanely stressful week and more so because of some phone calls and 3 hours at the bank, what you need are some great stress busters in the form of ice creams or cakes. Both my girls - Yalini and Avanthi offered to help beat my stress. Avanthi runs a cute little ice cream store called Bellaria and Yalini runs The Sweet' 'Art.

I was in the vicinity of Bellaria and made a spur of the moment decision to take up Avanthi on her offer. Avanthi is certified in ice-cream making. Bellaria's menu is highly customizable, right from the milk and sugar to the flavors and toppings and are made right in front of your eyes. The ice cream machines are imported and you can see how a simple blended liquid transforms into lip-smacking scoops.

As I waited for her to arrive, a family of 4 including a little girl were ordering their ice creams. And she was so enthralled that she carried the bowl with her to the car and was licking away to glory. It was a cute sight to see her face smeared with chocolate. (It was funny when one member of this family ordered a sugar free gulab jamun ice cream! :P )

I ordered a regular white chocolate ice-cream and Avanthi suggested a small modification. She added 2 spoons of orange juice while making the white chocolate to tone down the milky flavor of white chocolate. I asked for chocolate sauce over it but then she suggested I try it first before the topping. Boy, how right she was. The ice-cream had a mild undertone of orange and left me wanting for more. I just topped it with some dark choc chips and almond slivers. I paid INR 136 for this bowl of 3 scoops + toppings

Avanthi is also introducing some vegetable flavored ice-creams and I had the privilege of trying one. Carrots cooked in orange juice and then made into ice-creams. Loved the texture and the taste. It almost felt like gajar halwa except this is much more healthier. Avanthi is toying with various other vegetables and if you have suggestions, do post it as a comment here or on Bellaria's page.


It's no coincidence that stressed spelt backwards leads to desserts and that's the tag line of Bellaria.

Next stop - The Sweet' 'Art

Meet the bakers - Part 6

I was sailing on a small fluffy cupcake, floating high in the air, looking around the clouds, dreaming... mmmm..  That's what Rivka's email did to me - by far the best compliment I have ever received for the Meet the Baker series - quoting her verbatim - "Yes, I’ve seen and read all your blog posts and have been anxiously waiting for this mail from you! "

Meet Little miss muffet... er.. sorry Lil' Miss Kitchen's Rivka Maria Shahani, owner, baker, delivery girl, dishwasher and everything else that you can think of.

For someone who has been dabbling in various forms of arts - music, an MA in Fine Arts, logo design, photography, baking is a piece of cake (er.. ! does that make sense? :-) ) Rivka now sings with her church choir.

Excerpts:


D: Do you make your own pasta from scratch? Or are they store bought? If so, where do you source your ingredients from?
RMS: For my lasagna, I make my own pasta sheets, as the taste is unbeatable. But for my pasta bakes, since it’s not really viable to make penne/fusilli/smaller pasta shapes, I use store bought pasta. I source all my ingredients locally, supporting the small shop owners in Kilpauk. They have surprised me with their products like you’d never imagine!


D: Do you customize based on individual tastes?
RMS: Yes, 99% of the time.. I cook what I love to eat and it’s only fair that I feed people what they love to eat, but there is a limit as to how far I will go.. I never compromise on my basic recipes.


D: Your thoughts on the Bake Fest?
RMS: It’s a superb plan... I think KP Balakumar and Nanditha have been quite fantastic in bringing all of us together... It’s going to be extremely beneficial to us bakers, as we’re reaching out to an audience that we might not have had a chance to encounter, if it wasn’t for this. And it’s healthy to stand side by side with others who might be considered “competition” and be supportive of them and they of you... it’s going to be quite a show!


D: Your theme for this fest?
RMS: As you might’ve noticed on my page, my philosophy with my Kitchen is “Good food, made with love.” and that’s all it is. I like to keep things simple, I love my food and I want to share it.



D: Would you like to open a store sometime?
RMS: I’d love to... that is the eventual plan... for now I’m very content with working from home… since I have no professional training and since I do it all on my own, I’m growing with the Kitchen… it’s a good process for me, I’m taking my time and I think that’s the way to go… there’s no rush.

Signs off Rivka, Food is what occupies my days now… it’s extremely satisfying when you hear that a 2 year old squealed with delight and gobbled up her birthday cake that you’ve put a load of love into... it’s no longer about the time or effort it takes... it’s all about the love.

And someday, somewhere, I will have a space for likeminded people to come and share in these 3 loves of my life… and it will be beautiful.

Thank  you Rivka and I so look forward to meeting you on 30th. Love, Hugs, xx.