OUR DINING EXPERIENCE: SHEF- HOME COOKED FOOD AT YOUR DOORSTEP
These days it has become very common to order food home from restaurants. We do this once in a while. However, during our visit to the US we came across this interesting platform called Shef recently. Here too you can order in food of your choice from various cuisines but the difference is that the food you order is not from a restaurant but from someone's home. Yes, you get a home cooked meal delivered at your doorstep and you have considerable choice by way of cuisine- ranging from Indian, Chinese, Japanese to American cuisine.
Within the category of Indian for example, there are again numerous choices you can make such as South Indian, Gujarati, Rajasthani, Chettinad and so on. The name Shef, I gather, comes from "She" and " Chef" as 85 % of the home cooked food providers are women. Apparently, 85 % of them are coloured and they represent 85 countries! Quite fascinating, isn't it?
While in Oakland, Ca, we were scouting this platform for Indian food when Rajasthani food caught our attention. The home chef had commendable ratings and after some thought we decided not to order a few items but to opt for the Rajasthani Thali.
I must mention here that since these orders are executed by ladies who have homes to run Shef is not the place where you can get order delivered within a couple of hours as you would get from a pizza place or from most restaurants. Here you need to give a few days notice. So, order from Shef only when you have time on your hands and can plan for a meal of your choice after a couple of days.
Our order was delivered on time. The items were well -packed and came in a large Shef bag. We were impressed by the order execution process and the portions sent were fairly generous. We came to know that the lady who had cooked this home made meal was Ms Radhika.
More importantly, the food too was pretty tasty. We had the usual items one would associate with a Rajasthani thali: Daal Bhatti, Churma, Gatte ka Pulao, Gatte ka Subzi, Meethe Chawal, Garlic Chutney and Daal with the meal being rounded off with Ghevar. The last named came as a complimentary possibly because we had ordered several thalis that day.
For the uninitiated, let me describe my understanding of the dishes. Daal Bhatti is a dish made with lentils ( Dal) and Bhatti ( hard bun like rolls made with wheat)), while Churma which accompanies this is made with wheat flour, semolina, powdered sugar, cardamom, ghee and fried nuts. Gatte ke Subzi has chickpea flour as the main ingredient for the Gatte while the curry has different spices and yogurt. The Garlic Chutney looked fiery red in colour and is quite hot.
Meethe Chawal, as the name suggests is a mildly sweet flavoured rice. Here basmati rice and sugar syrup are the main ingredients with cardamom, cloves, cinnamon and kesar to add to the flavours. Ghevar is the traditional Rajasthani dessert made with maida and sugar syrup and has a distinctive porous appearance.
We thoroughly enjoyed the meal.
Will we try the Shef platform again? Yes, we would and I would recommend you give it a shot too. All the Home Chefs are certified and like in any other platform you can see the reviews and ratings before making your selections.
