Cochin Files

I am back after my short vacation.... the holiday blues continues but excited to be with you all... My each visit to Kerala always offer something different to experience...The recent vacation to Cochin, was something to remember. It had a bit of everything... a traditional Kottayam Christian wedding, an unexpected funeral of a great man who left a legacy to remember, a baptism...  quality time with family, catching up with some crazy cousins, a getaway to a resort on the backwaters, hogging on yummy food like appams & stew, beef fry, karemeen fry (pearl spot fish fry), ethakka fry (banana fritters) and to top it all ... Hot chai and rains.... it was just perfect!

Here are some pictures that summarizes my vacation

beautiful aerial view of Cochin

backwaters

Wedding house in Kottayam

 

 

Cherpunkal Church

Kumarakom Lake Resort

 

Beautiful Table Décor for Jayden's Baptism

Miss the rains!!

 

Beautiful paintings from a Delhi based artist

a walk in the clouds.... back to Muscat

Images are clicked by me


 

French Toast: a quaint little patisserie in Cochin

If you are in Cochin and looking out for a nice place where you are served with good patisserie, assorted bread and savory, then French Toast is the place to be. It’s a nice little quaint place with good ambience, pleasing service, good music, a great place to hang out and serves a varied menu. Their signature desserts are divine and innovative. The ingredients used are handpicked, fresh and imported. I would highly recommend this place if you are looking freshness and quality.

Let’s get to know more from Ayaz Salim, the owner of French Toast

Tell us a little bit about yourself. What made you want to open up French Toast? Did you have any formal training in setting up your café?

​I was working in advertising for close to 12 years in the Middle East, my father who is also in the food industry in Dubai was the one who planted the seed in my head, so salman (my younger brother) and I started French toast back in 2011. We were clear back then that we wanted to give people good food (whatever the cost). I have not had any formal training in baking or culinary arts, but have a lot of on work training. However the people we employ are all well trained chefs from all over the world. 

What inspired the name French Toast?

​Both Salman and I used to eat a lot of French toast growing up, and the concept of French toast appealed to us (the fact that stale bread is dipped in egg and reinvented in the form of a beautiful dish essentially avoiding any wastage and being sustainable.) hence the name. ​

 

What sets you apart from the others?

Here are a few pointers that sets us apart

We are amongst a handful of cafes / restaurants who use ingredients like belgian couverture chocolate (to give you an idea about how rare it is, in a city like Bombay there are only two places who use pure chocolate like us, the hyatt and another award winning patisserie called la foilie) - after we launched more people in cochin have started using and talking about Belgian chocolate etc, however they still only use it for one or two of their cakes instead of the entire menu. 

Our processes are totally different from regular commercial kitchens, for instance everyone in Kerala uses cake gels and sponge mixes to create their sponge, these mixes are pre made and sent from Europe/ India etc, however these contain a high amount of chemical preservatives to survive our climate and conserve nutrition but are harmful to our bodies over the long term.

 We on the other hand, create everything from scratch, that means if we make a jaconde sponge then we buy almonds, crush and grind them, extract the powder and use that as the base to make a cake, this is why for instance the MONT BLANC takes about 18 hours to make (including setting time) 

We are the most copied bakery in Kerala (there are already atlas 8 to 9 bakeries that copy our products and there is one that blatantly copied our Mont blanc by picking up one of our pastry chefs, what this means is that other people also believe in our products as much as we do. 

​We are the only bakery in Kerala that is preservative free; this means that our products are best for diabetic patients, heart patients etc.

 

If I walk into your café, what is the one thing I should order and eat?

​I always struggle to suggest, when you say the one thing you should order and eat all I can recommend is what most people like, say the Mont blanc or our gouda cheese frenchtoast or strawberry frenchtoast or even the banoffee pie. However my personal favorite is the almond pear tart or the salted caramel tart (which most people would find hideous because of chocolate / salt combination) ​

 

Describe your space in 3 words

​PRESERVATIVE FREE FOOD​

 

What advice would you give to someone who is dreaming of opening their own café?

​Chances of you becoming a doctor are more than say succeeding in running your own cafe, that’s because the amount of personal discipline and domain knowledge required to open a cafe is much more than what people think, but everyone seems to take it lightly because our country does not have a culinary culture like say France or even Australia. ​

 

Any future plans of opening up another café?

​We are opening two in Kakanad by close of March, and looking for franchisees in Calicut. ​

 

 

Here are some pictures of what they offer and get ready to drool...

 

 

 

 

Thanks Ayaz for giving us an insight to French Toast.

 

Looking forward to my next visit to Cochin. Please click here to access updates from their Facebook page.

 

 

 

Images via French Toast

 

 

 

 

 

 

Through my Lens: Fort Kochi

Fort Kochi is like an oasis in Cochin, away from the hustle and bustle of the city that caters to the backpackers and the luxury tourists.  It’s calm yet lively with lot of old historic places, restaurants and cafés, Churches,  Synagogue, beach, Jewish street with shops selling art, antiques and spices. I loved walking through the narrow streets with old buildings on both side and feeling the history of the place. 

Enjoy this culturally rich place through my lens!

Shopping Street

 

 

Spice market

 

 

 

Jewish Street

 

 

Antique shop

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

St. Francis Church, an old European church built in the 16th Century AD

 

 

 

 

Dutch Cemetery

 

 

 

Jewish Synagogue

 

 

 

Loved this beautiful house on of the streets in Fort Kochi

 

 

Most of the streets are adorned by beautiful trees

 

 

Images are clicked by me

 

Kashi Art Café

A Big Hello to each one of you! I am back from my holiday, feeling refreshed and I find myself pushing to get back into my routine. But I am happy to be back in my blogosphere. Today I’d like to feature a quaint little café called Kashi Art Café in Fort Cochin, famous for exhibiting beautiful art along with some great food, excellent service and ambience. The interior of this café is minimalistic with indoor and outdoor seats and decorated with interesting pieces of art and sculptures. They have a limited menu with great breakfast options, fresh juices, spiced tea , freshly ground coffee and I loved their chocolate cake. Kashi Art Café started as a platform for all talented artists to showcase their work and today it’s a landmark for contemporary art. I personally enjoyed the mix of art, food and soothing music in this elegant café. Kashi Art Café is definitely going to see more of me!



a unique sculpture near the entrance

 

 

 




Works of spanish artist Gayatri Gamuz displayed in the café



another beautiful sculpture

 

 

fresh cakes!

Images are clicked by me

Bindaas Thankam Shots-Out Photography

A week back I accidentally discovered a talent in the photography world and I just knew I had to feature her passion and skill in photography. Popularly known as Bindaas Thankam, I personally love her food photography, the mood she creates for her pictures and some of her portrait shots are powerful.

Over to you Thankam to learn a little more about yourself and your work -

 
"Hi, I am Thankam Kumaran and in the photography world I am known as Bindaas Thankam. Presently am based in Kochi. Bindaas became my moniker thanks to my time at Radio Jockey Training. Photography was never my first love. I have always been into music and poetry. I was trained in western classical Piano and Vocals for 2 years. Had to leave music due to TB and it took me over three years to recover from it. This affected my vocal quality. So, I decided not to sit and cry about it, rather decided to do something that requires creativity. I use to take decent good photographs with my point and shoot, then my dear friend recommended me to put my energies into photography and for that he also advised me to get a basic course in Graphic Designing. It helps in the long run for editing and working on commercial photography.

I have invested myself into full time photography ever since my marriage. Being married to a naval officer enabled me to travel places and helped me photograph different places and faces. I love doing portraits more than anything else, but with weather, time n space I have taught myself to blend into different genres. Yes I am self taught. Google and studying works of masters like Steve McCurry has helped me a lot. I never copy anyone's style and always believe in making my own statements. More than technicality, I believe in bringing the candidness in every frame.

Food photography happened by chance. I have been cooking ever since I was a kid and after marriage I wanted to write a cookbook, so voila the idea of food photography came from there and there has been no stopping ever since. Apart from travel and food photography, I also love doing sunsets one of my favourite subject in landscape.

I provide professional services for small events like baptisms and music concerts and also do candid portraits for kids, family, women, and men. I also shoot for cake artists. Being a graphic designer, I also design albums, logos, catalogues. I am also a digital makeup artist. Upcoming assignments may involve me in clothing lines, restaurants and yes lots of Travel.

Photography has changed my life; it has made me more responsible and appreciative of life. I have dedicated my life to raise funds through my assignments to provide education to kids and to provide protection to wild life. My goal is not get famous but to contribute to the changing fabric of my world."

Here are some beautiful pictures clicked through her lens

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Check out her page for Photography at BindaasThankam Shots-Out Photography and her food & recipe page called PinkWife-Fast & Fabulicious.  

Images via Bindaas Thankam

Kalaniketan: Ethnic Fine Art Boutique

Kalaniketan is an exclusive boutique in Cochin for Lucknowi Chikan work on fabric. I had the pleasure of meeting the wonderful designer and owner of this boutique, Honey Vijayan, who has been in this venture for the past 16 years. This boutique offers a variety of sarees, salwar materials, readymade short kurtas and even shirts and kurtas for men. It was so hard for me to stop shopping there! The varieties of embroideries on sarees are worth checking out. This store definitely offers the best chikan art work on clothes in Cochin.

Click here if you would like to know more about Chikan embroidery

Designer Honey Vijayan in news

I fell in love with the small garden in front of this boutique which was ethnically done up and I couldn’t resist myself from clicking pictures.

If you wish to get in touch with designer Honey Vijayan, you can call her at 0091-9388604367.


Images are clicked by me