13 May,2022 06:16 PM IST | Mumbai | Raul Dias
Crema Banoffee, Cioccolato Grand and Frutti e Panna
SYNAESTHESIA in its simplest form can be explained as a fancy term for when you experience one of your senses through another. So, for this writer, the word "trifle" offers a two-pronged sensorial blast from the past. One, thanks to devouring Enid Blyton books as a kid, where one was bound to encounter seemingly glorious sounding, mouth-watering English puddings (as they call desserts there!) like summery strawberry trifles "topped off with tufts of piped, whipped cream".
The other, a more recent pop culture reference that sees the character of Rachel Green in the American TV sitcom, Friends misinterprets a recipe for a trifle that has her ending up using pieces of beef in one of its many layers. Much to her posse's and our collective disgust!
But thankfully for us, the former memory triggered by Blyton's deliciously descriptive prose, almost entirely banishes away the horrors of the latter. This, as we dig through the many layers of our very own single-serve desserts. Notwithstanding the fact that our order is delivered over an hour late, we relish every bite of these trifle-adjacent confections from the Kala Ghoda-based The Pink Rosette bakery.
Aptly named Strati for its alternating, strata-like layers and served in reusable, cup-like lidded containers, this all vegetarian and eggless capsule collection of eight desserts hits the spot. And while we do find them a tad pricey, we're pretty impressed with them on almost all counts.
We start off with a chocolate overload that takes the form of the cioccolato grand (Rs 325). Here, seven expressions of chocolate like dark and milk chocolate brownie bits, dark and milk chocolate mousse, chocolate sable crumbs, chocolate shards and a topping of chocolate Chantilly cream join forces to give you the ultimate theobromine-induced high.
Next, craving something fruity, we dig into the aptly named frutti e panna (Rs 350). This one is a medley of jelly, graham crackers, fresh berries, mango bits, vanilla custard, vanilla sponge and what they claim to be a "vanilla Chantilly cream".
Our only problem with this one is that on tasting it, we suspect the fancy sounding "Chantilly cream" to be nothing more than that horribly artificial tasting, non-dairy mock whipped cream out of a carton. Something we see pastry chefs resorting to with impunity these days in lieu of the real deal.
We finish off our tri-part, trifle taste test with perhaps the best of the lot. Creamy, unctuous and criminally more-ish the crema banoffee (Rs 315) which is also ironically the least expensive of the three is a symphony of biscuit crumble, vanilla blondie bits, dulce de leche, sliced banana, flaked almonds and finished off with a mildly salted caramel cream. Once again synaesthesia comes rushing to the fore and transports us to Manhattan's famed Magnolia Bakery that makes the legendary banana pudding that this layered dessert is undoubtedly inspired by.
And if all that sugar wasn't enough, we end our innings with a little more... We shake things up a bit and dig into a slice of their mango cheesecake (Rs 3,000 per kg) from the regular menu that is everything a good cheesecake should be. Minus this one's rather exorbitant price, of course.
Laden with chopped Alphonso mango bits, it has just the right amount of cream cheese and a buttery base of crushed Graham crackers. The blueberries topping it make for a slightly acidic counter taste, along with fresh sprigs of cooling mint leaves that elevate it to seventh heaven.
AT: Strati by The Pink Rosette, 1 Mistry Mansion, Mahatma Gandhi Road, Fort.
DELIVERY: Zomato, Swiggy or Thrive
TIME: 11am to 12am (Tuesday to Sunday)
CALL: 7718077776
INSTAGRAM: @strati.india @thepinkrosette
