Chirag Desai

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Enjoy! :)

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Enjoy!

Consider the premise for a new TV show on one of the many, many channels:

A family has 3 adult sons. The father of the household (traditionally the head of the family) has decided that he wants a specific girl to be his daughter-in-law. So now, he will spend the rest of the TV show’s life (and what’s left of Indian households’ brains) deciding which of his sons she will marry.

Are. You. Kidding.

This was made by dad at home. Whenever I make a mousse cake (last attempt was strawberry mousse cake), it never turns out like this (read: messed up). The one made by dad has the perfect consistency, the taste, even they way it’s cut and presented looks awesome. It was garnished with white chocolate- for some reason (till date) it looks like cheese to me :)

Banoffee Pie may sound complicated but it is one of the easiest British desserts to make and also one that got me liking bananas. I don’t quite like that fruit, I’m more of a berries, raisins, cherries, blackberries, strawberries, sultanas, pomegranates person. Did I mention strawberries?

So a banoffee pie is primarily made out of bananas, cream, caramel and to give you a kick- chocolate is used as topping. The only trouble I had was finding a jar of ready made caramel. In Dubai, Nestle does not stock it’s very popular Carnation Caramel and I don’t know how to make it at home so I scoured Dubai for ready made caramel, spoke to friends, colleagues, even asked The Question Company but in vain. Yes, I tried Marks & Spencer as well but nothing! After days of searching and almost giving up, I *finally* located it at Carrefour in Oasis Center Mall. It was hiding among other jams and ready made spreads.

There are some recipes that ask for the baking of the crust of the pie etc etc. I found an alternative to that. Here’s the easy recipe:

Ingredients:

*It really depends how big or small your tart tin is- I used a medium sized one so accordingly, the measurement is as follows:*

- 1 small pack of Digestive cookies
- 3/4th cup of solid butter
- 2 ripe bananas (throw in an additional one if you are a banana fan)
- 1 jar caramel
- 2 cups whipping cream (or heavy cream)
- Chocolate, for garnishing- I used Flakes (easy way out)

Method:

- Crush the cookies and mix with the butter. Press them into the base of the tart tin and keep it in the refrigerator for about 20mins or until it is set. It doesn’t take too long.
 — Spread spoonfuls of caramel onto the base until it is covered (a thin to medium layer of caramel should do just fine). Place it in the fridge for about 45mins to an hour.
- Once the caramel has set, cut the banana and top the slices over the biscuit and caramel base. Spread the whipped cream over the banana slices. 
 — Top this with chocolate shavings.

And you are done!

P.S. Again- this was the only (blurred) pic I could take before chowing it down

Earlier this week, I was taking a stroll around Festival Marina, Dubai Festival City. There’s a few new restaurants open there but this one place caught my eye: Chocopologie. Needless to say, the name alone was intriguing enough to get me in there within 5 minutes.

After being shown around by a friendly waitress, I promised myself I would go there for brunch since they served all-day breakfast! (How exciting is that?! I love breakfast food!)

So within the next few days, I was craving for some french toast. I usually make my own but I do get my extra lazy days when I’d prefer to just sit down at a nice place, order it and have it sitting right in front of me just waiting to be wolfed down. Okay, enough ranting now..

I told my friend Hamna (Twitter Handle: @hamna_), who is a fellow chocolate-eating zombie, about Chocopologie and we decided to have brunch there. We were welcomed and seated by our waiter Ray, who was very helpful and friendly.

Hamna had the omelette stuffed with tomatoes and cheese with a side salad

I had the french toast with maple syrup and a side of strawberry salad.

The verdict: YUM! That is all.

Ray was also kind enough to offer us some chocolates to try.

On the left: Patricia — dark chocolate on the outside, white chocolate inside with sweet mexican & ancho chilli filling.
 Top: Lauren — milk chocolate covered in walnuts with a pear ganache filling.
 Right: Kelly — 64% dark chocolate with a strawberry and lemon tart filling (my personal favorite).
 Bottom: Charlotte (named after the founder’s sister) — milk chocolate with a basil and apricot filling.

They were divine, to say the least

Interestingly enough, most of the chocolates are named after women. Ray informed us that they were women the founder had met on his travels around the world (ahem) in search for unique ingredients to use to make his chocolates.

The interior of the café has a Victorian theme, not my personal favorite style but quite interesting for a café.

Here’s some more pictures of what they have to offer from chocolates and pastries.

These truffles are one of the world’s most expensive chocolates.

I’ll definitely be visiting them again soon to have a taste of some of their unique pastries. Till then, I’ll settle for drooling over the photos.

Find out more about Chocopologie!