I might have mentioned it in the past - I love cheesecake (the desserts and other food albums in facebook, et al consist predominantly of pics of cheesecakes in various places:)). It’s often a toss up between chocolate brownies and cheesecake but while you get brownies nearly anywhere (although of varying quality), cheesecakes are an entirely different story.

I usually start jumping the moment I see cheesecake on the menu, but more often than not, they don’t quite meet expectation - there’s the rather awful orange cheesecake at Sweet Chariot, and then the Irish Cream cheesecake at Ice n Spice which does not have an Irish Cream flavour but does taste like a vanilla mousse with chocolate swirls on top. Infinitea and Daily Bread have decent enough cheesecakes but from what I recall nothing to go screaming to town over.

But one keeps trying, so when we went out for lunch to a place we hadn’t tried before, and saw cheesecakes in the display, and since fellow cheesecake aficionados were around, there was some collective jumping.

I’m glad to proclaim that one bite into the kiwi cheesecake at La Patisserie off St. Mark’s Road and the world was suddenly a better place to live in.


( Yumminess )

This is one of the few places where the crust melts in your mouth, and it has just the right amount of sweetness and flavour. There’s that teensy layer of cake in the middle of the topping which adds an awesome touch, because the topping has soaked it through. And the topping itself just melts in your mouth too. It’s a little too sweet and so the kiwi flavour gets slightly overrun but that’s actually okay.

The rest of their food (predominantly sandwiches, pizzas, quiches and pies) is very nice too It’s one of those tiny places with a wood flooring and hacky chairs, and all white patterned cutlery, an open view to the side street it’s in. And they serve you flavoured water… the water jugs are stuffed with mint leaves and lemons. The other desserts are nice too, there was a chocolate thingy that was quite yummy.




But the cheesecakes remain to die for.

I was talking about a foodie joint with a few people at work on my floor. I’ve never eaten there, but it’s alfresco so when you walk by it you get a good idea of what you get there. So when I tried to tell a colleague about the food, all I could tell her about it was that the food looked good, and since one believes in economy with words as well, the description that finally came out was – “they have good looking french fries.”

To most people I know, this would have been a perfectly acceptable and understandable statement.

The people this was spoken to however, and here we speak of the brilliant gems that adorn my division and hence the however many square feet of the floor I sit on, found the description hilarious – the funny, snide kind of hilarious and not the cleverly amusing kind of hilarious. The idea that something like food could not be described as good looking seemed positively incomprehensible.

Huh?

I couldn’t see why it would be funny at all, so as all sane people do, I consulted the sane pals on the other floor. And voila! There was immediate understanding – of course food could be good looking and it must be because the fries look the perfect golden colour, and we must go eat at the place under discussion some time. Also plenty of sympathy over the reaction and the fools I share the floor with.

And hence it is now proven. I clearly have major wavelength issues with the people who sit around me. They don’t even read! I am so justified in my cribs about the workplace *sniffle*

So, I met a couple of friends at the old fav Oxford Bookstore Cha Bar on Sunday evening and had a great time. I would love to say I contributed greatly to a highly entertaining conversation that shifted indiscriminately from the four letter word that is work to holidays in China, Ladakh and Europe to apparel to some gaffe by some Miss something at some bimbo pageant to the sadness that is the Oxfor Bookstore to much else rather easily, my most pertinent contributions were as below:

“What do we eat?”

“Aren’t you guys eating anything?”

“The blueberry muffins here are the awesomest.”

“Ooohhhh! I want the green tea margarita.”

“Oooh! I’m feeling peckish. Ooh! There’s a potato and something thingy. Should I have the potato and something or a tried and tested corn and mushroom quiche?”

“I think I’ll have a corn and mushroom quiche.”

“Ow! This is guava juice. Where’s the green tea? Where’s the margarita? Yes I know they don't serve alcohol here, but still...*sob*”

“This corn and mushroom quiche is to die for."

“I'm still peckish. I think I’ll have a blueberry muffin.”

“There aren’t enough blueberries in this. The muffins in the Cha Bar in Madras are almost entirely blue in colour.”

“I’m thirsty. I’m going to have a cardamom tea.”

“Aren’t you guys eating anything? Try the potato and whatever thingy... it sounds nice.”

“The fries basket... the fries basket. You must have the fries basket.”

“Where was the margarita in the green tea margarita? We’ll stick to the rum tea next time.”

I’d sort of ended up skipping lunch, you see. I was also too hungry to click pics of any of the food.

I suppose I've neglcted this poor place long enough. Therefore, as an inaugral post - food!

Dessert during lunch at the local outlet of this place last Tuesday

They call 'em Black forest crepes

( Black forest crepes )