Uncle Tetsu is spacious with a cherry blossom tree outside for the Japanese touch
Upon Arshad's recommendation, we decided to try both the fresh, warm cheesecake as well as the cooler, refrigerated one to experience the difference. While waiting for the cakes, we ask Mr Arshad what made him introduce Uncle Tetsu to such a risky market.
“Uncle Tetsu is a very quirky brand, full of happiness, excitement, sweetness. And our market was missing that. We have so many fast food restaurants and coffee chains, but what was missing was the excitement of a brand. This cake makes you happy when you see it jiggle. This cake got famous in Canada around eight years ago. Then it went to Australia, and in seven years they were all over the world. It’s a new phenomenon that no one has been able to copy yet.”
He then shared the supposed health benefits of desserts like Japanese cheesecake.
“We have very sweet desserts right now in the market; you have a couple of bites and you get a sugar rush, sometimes it's not possible to finish a whole slice of cake.
"People have now become health and calorie conscious and are avoiding a lot of sugar. This cake is so low on sugar that even if you have an entire cake its sugar content will be equal to that of a single slice of a conventional cake. I’m confident that gradually people will realise how good a low-sugar cake is. You can satiate your sugar craving with it without technically eating a lot of sugar. It’s completely healthy,” he claims.
"Uncle Tetsu is a very quirky brand, full of happiness, excitement, sweetness. And our market was missing that. We have so many fast food restaurants and coffee chains, but what was missing was the excitement of a brand. This cake makes you happy when you see it jiggle."
Our oven-fresh cake arrived by this time, and just the smell is tempting enough. Contrary to many of the comments, it doesn’t overwhelmingly smell of egg. It’s a little brown on the top with an Uncle Tetsu logo stamped on it, and slicing into the cake is like slicing into air: it is THAT light.
In fact, it’s so airy that cutting a perfectly held-together slice is quite a task. And as soon as we put it in our mouths, it vanished. You definitely get the egg flavour, but it’s very subtle and doesn’t put one off. Also, it’s so lightly sweetened that no matter how many slices you have, you don’t feel a thing. And yeah, Mr Arshad was right – one person CAN indeed have an entire cake, with it weighing barely a pound.
We devoured our cheesecake with a mug of freshly brewed Americano. And what a combo it was!