Ideas on a platter

homely treats

Do you detest the thought of lifting a knife on a Sunday but can’t help yourself because the only other option would be to eat at a fastfood joint or order in an oil-soaked dish that would make you feel sick halfway through? 

   For all those who can’t get enough of home-cooked meals but want a break from the kitchen, Shakhi Da Dhaba is the place to orderfrom.  

   Shakhi Dutta began the start-up in Marathahalli a while back and delivers steaming hot plates of home-cooked meals to the residents of the locality every Sunday. “I took a gap two years back to look after my kid and I would go through recipes and I discovered so many new ones. That’s when I realised that with a little innovation, anything can taste good. Most people won’t like home-cooked food if it’s cooked in the same way again and again,” says Shakhi. 

She takes orders on Saturday nights, till 10 pm, and by Sunday afternoon she delivers the food to everyone. “The box is called ‘The Brunch Box’ and it’s a way to give housewives and bachelors a break from cooking on a Sunday and sleep late. I have a vegetarian and a non-vegetarian menu.” 

The items on the menu include a healthy starter, salad, main course and dessert. She makes makkai methi tikka, different salads, malai kofta,jeera rice, gajar ka halwa, malai tikki, jhatpat chicken,fried rice, firni and more. 

While she has been catering to many in her area, Shakhi says she hasn’t had the success she would have liked. 

“The main problem is the funds, which we don’t have a lot of, and because of that we can’t reach a large customer base, even though the quality of food is good. Even if five to 10 percent of people  in an apartment complex like our food, it would benefit us but to reach out to them, we need resources that we don’t have.”   

According to her, good food is something that tastes good and is healthy. 

“My mother’s recipes are my favourite. I find that if we try hard enough, we can bring out interesting tastes in home-cooked foods. These days people mostly eat in canteens and hardly have time to eat at home,” she says. 

Although she says she would like to expand her business, she is currently multitasking
 between her job and taking care of her kid, so she keeps the orders to the weekends. 

“Another reason I was encouraged to do this was because my husband is a professional food photographer, so he has helped me through this a lot,” she sums up.  To order from Shakhi Da Dhaba, call 40935050.