I have been a regular visitor of this bakery called Square One Homemade Treats ever since I heard about it a few years ago… What makes this place unique is that unlike other bakeries, this place is run by a group of enterprising ladies in Trivandrum and everything they sell is made by them at home… This can be clearly seen in the taste of each item you get there as they all have this good homemade taste and feel to them… There is a distinct sub-cuisine that belongs to Kottayam based Christians in Kerala and you can see that in most of the options, as based on what I heard, most of them belong to that community… I have been getting all kinds of knick-knacks from them regularly over the years as both me and my parents have been liking them better than the other options…
In addition to the knick-knacks and the usual bakery items, they also sell a set of meal options for lunch and dinner, which they sell as parcels and also serve there if needed… This is a menu thats different for each day of the week… Here, I am writing about their Chicken Meals parcel and their Falooda…
The Meals parcel usually comes with Chemba Rice, a Chammanthi, a Thoran, a Mezhukupuratty, Pickle and then a main item all in a single 750ml foil container along with a wet curry in a cup… So far, I have only seen two variants being sold i.e. Chicken and Vegetarian respectively… The Vegetarian option is rarely seen, especially only during festival times when the demand for Vegetarian option increases… But, rest of the year, the Chicken option is available everyday… Sadly, a fish option is never available and I think it would’ve been great to have…
So, here what I got is the Chicken option and what I got this time, as shown in the pics below, (which varies on a daily basis) consisted of the Rice, Chicken Perattu, Chammanthi and Lime Pickle along with Kovakka (Ivy Gourd) Mezhukkupuratty, Manpayar (Red Cow Peas) Thoran inside the foil container and along with it came a cup of Pulissery… The Rice, Chicken Pirattu, Chammanthi and the Lime Pickle stays the same all the time and the rest keeps changing on a daily basis… The accompanying curry ends up alternating between the Pulissery and the Parippu-Rasam…
First of all, the quantity is just right for me… Not too much and not too less… Another thing thats strikes me is the side dishes to rice ratio which unlike most other options, is what I consider to be perfect… Regarding the individual items, the rice of-course was cooked perfectly… The Chammanthy seemed to be made with tamarind and Bird’s Eye Chillies along with Coconut and roasted dried red chillies and the overall flavour profile was just right with the right amount of spiciness and sourness… The Kovakka Mezhukkupuratty and the Manpayar Thoran felt to be tasting incredibly clean with the flavours of both the Kovakka and Manpayar (along with coconut) along with the flavours of mustard, shallots and curry leaves coming thru… The Pickle given is the same as what they sell bottled as Sweet Lime Pickle, which is a sweet and sour pickle made with Lime and Ginger… The Pulisseri was quite creamy with the buttermilk seasoned with a bit of turmeric and chilly powder and then with the pieces of cucumber cooked in it and then the whole thing infused with the tempering consisting of mustard seeds, curry leaves and onions… Coming to the main side dish, namely the Chicken Perattu, the chicken was cooked perfectly along with roasted pieces of coconut, onions, greenchillies, mustard seeds and potatoes, all seasoned with the garam masala… Altogether, this is one of my favourite meals parcel options in Trivandrum… My only complaint is the use of the potatoes in the Chicken Perattu because first of all, I don’t see why it needs to be there. an also because, sometimes, they include the Mezhukkupuratty made with Potatoes and then having the potatoes in the Chicken side dish makes it a potato overload for me… Other than that, it is a meals option that I like to have… 🙂
Along with the meals, what I got for dessert this time was their Falooda… Faloodas over here, unlike the Mumbai kind, are Knickerbocker Glory inspired Ice Cream sundaes consisting of Ice-cream, Fruits, Nuts, Fruit Jams and Jellies, along with Chilled milk, Khus-khus and Semolina… Here, the Falooda that I got consisted of a scoop of Vanilla Ice Cream, Strawberry Jam and Jelly, Fruits including Banana, Apple and Tutti-frutti, roasted Cashew Nuts, Sweetened soaked Khus-khus and instead of cooked Semolina and chilled milk separately, they have put in some chilled Payasam made with Semolina and condensed milk… This was further garnished with some Strawberry and Pista sauce…
I found the Falooda to be incredibly rich… Granted that the ice cream did end up melting quite a bit, but to me, thats the perfect consistency for the ice cream to be in, in case of a Falooda like this, cause, that way you get to taste the ice cream in every bite even as you explore deep in to it as the melted ice cream ends up permeating the whole thing… It was incredibly creamy with the perfect amount of vanilla flavour… The fruits clearly seemed fresh and juicy… The semolina payasam was thick and creamy with a good taste of condensed milk… The Khus-khus and the jelly felt incredibly refreshing with the rest of the ingredients… The Strawberry and Pista sauces seemed to enhance the overall experience further… Altogether definitely one of the best Faloodas I have ever had so far thats a must try… But sadly, its not available everyday and so its best to call them and check for availability… 🙂
