Kaffeine: A healthy food haven

Saturday, 22 June 2013 06:16 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

By Rashika Fazali There aren’t many places in Colombo that are pet-friendly. In fact, there are no food places which are pet-friendly, but Kaffeine is one of those ‘once in a lifetime’ cafes which has no restrictions when it comes to your pets. The owner of Kaffeine, Dushy Daniel who is also the chef, revealed how she made it a pet-friendly café: “A couple once came with their dog and asked me if it’s possible to serve the food in the car because they figured they couldn’t bring their dog in. I don’t have an issue with dogs, so I asked them to come in. They’ve being regular customers ever since.”

Kaffeine situated off Maya Avenue and right on top of a clothing store called Laveesh in Havelock Town, dishes out reasonably priced, good coffee, juices and delicious chocolate drinks. However, it isn’t your average coffee shop, but a small café that can accommodate around 20 people. You may also call it the ‘Jazz Café’ if you want, with numerous pictures of jazz artistes like George Benson hung on the wall. Distinctly, you can also hear some chilled out jazz and feel-good music. Perfect for the rainy weather, I would say. Dushy started off as a home baker, baking a lot of cakes. She said: “I kept getting more and more orders and one day decided to open my own shop. The kitchen at home is also small and it becomes quite difficult to work with kids at home.” A mother of three, she finds it hard to juggle being a mom and a wife as well as an owner of a café. Nevertheless since cooking has been a passion of hers for around five years, she opened her own place in November of last year. Her menu features a lot of healthy food since she is kind of a health freak. She also caters healthy food to Elizabeth Moir School. She added, “I never ever sell pastries. It’s terribly unhealthy,” but she makes other things like waffles with oats and wholemeal flour. If anyone asks her what they should get from the menu, undoubtedly she’ll say salads because she believes they are healthy and quite filling. True to her word, she made a bowl full of crispy prawns with shredded vegetables consisting of carrots, black olives, cucumber, corn,

watermelon, raisins, zucchini and tomato with a dressing. The salads usually come with two slices of garlic bread and are priced at Rs. 400 upwards. Outside her soup menu, she made a unique fish ball soup that consists of corn, tomatoes, beans, cucumber and coriander leaves which she created recently for a sick friend. What I loved about the soup was the taste of the coriander leaves in every spoonful you take in, but what I didn’t enjoy much were the big fish balls. If you are out and about to find a tasty cold chocolate drink, do try out the uniquely created dark choco mint with whipped cream priced at Rs.400. It contained the right amount of mint and sweetness which certainly made the drink tantalizing and refreshing. I would go back to have more any day. To go with it, order the ice cream cake topped with Kahlua which comes at Rs. 300 per wedge. If you’ve had the baked Alaska before

then you would know the joy of having something similar. Although the ice cream cake never goes into the oven like baked Alaska does, it sure is a good enough substitute. In her five-layer cake, two layers are made of either chocolate or vanilla ice cream which she makes herself. It’s not as delicious as the dark choco mint drink, but it blends well especially when you have it with the Kahlua. You can also order a one kilo cake priced at Rs. 2,000. Dushy also makes something that cannot be bought anywhere else; flavoured éclairs. She makes them in 10 flavours including strawberry cheesecake, passion fruit, rum and raisin and chocolate and mint. She also makes frozen yoghurt and is currently promoting it. Pix by Anusha De Silva