Inkum Kavale - The chivalrous Kaapi!

Call me late to the party but I got latched on to the song Inkum Kavale pretty behind time to the mix. The inherent Ilaiyaraaja vintage feel of yesteryear was what smeared me in and you get a zany yet vibrant feel that tailspins on you instantaneously. The number is sashayed with good ol aroma fueled degrees of filter coffee.

Kaapi ragam stands out for me because of the subtle up and down curves as well as the judicious use of alternate notes which usually tends to be the hallmark of most Raaja ish kaapi's. This one by the newcomer Gopi Sundar totally re kindled the good ol fashioned charry charm of Kaapi.

Juxtaposing across notes makes you fall flat unless you've got the grip sorted out through practice and my amateur attempt did see me stumbling a bit on those convoluted potholes. It was however more the joy of attempting this refreshing melody that mattered at the end of the day. Not sure how it came out but it has certainly made me admire and fall in love with this chivalrous coffee (kaapi) composition.

HuTong - Smearing the aroma!

Hutong greets you with a kicking smearing aroma as soon as you land up at this place. The Chinese aroma is in all its splendor as you get in. The place is shrouded in a peaceful locality in the Seethamal Colony at Alwarpet.

It is a pretty small space with limited seating arrangements. In our recent dinner experience there wasn't anything to crib at all and everything went on expected lines. It's a Chinese outlet and the menu sticks to that.

What really felt impressive is they seem to play their cards close to the chest. They just specialise in what they are good at and that came out very vividly. It's a very selective menu with a few soups, starters, main course and desserts. The mains especially are in the form of bowl where your rice and noodles come with a gravy.

The aromatic veg broth soup contained the requisite veggies and had a very appealing taste. The lotus stem starter was crispy and crunchy. The presence od red chillies and roasted groundnuts certainly elevated it. The mushroom bao buns were decent and I felt it could have been a notch better.

For main course I tried the butter fried veg garlic rice with a blackened veg gravy. It was very good with the rice being really flavourful and the side gravy went along well with it containing tofu, cauliflower and few others. Ended dinner with a refreshing glass of chilled milo which was actually very nice.

On the whole, a really pleasing experience. The rates are really reasonable and absolutely worth the price. The service was quick witted and we got our dishes well on time. In essence, a really lovely Chinese alley down the side of Alwarpet.

Eating Circles - Crunch along to the finest of Karnatic tiffin variety!

Eating Circles brings the best of Karnataka cuisine to the shores of Chennai. It is largely to do with tiffin variety and a majority of the stuff they serve are very good. The name Eating Circles stems out of the fact that a majority of south indian delicacies are circular in shape such as Idli, Vada, Pongal and even Dosa in few cases.

The place is situated in a central location at CP Ramaswamy Road in Alwarpet. It's more of a quick eatery joint as opposed to a regular fine dining restaurant. But they've made all efforts to make it spic and span and it does project a neat picture. The open kitchen is an add on with the aroma smearing over you. The ambiance is well played. There isn't much to depict in a limited space but they've got a lovely optical illusion of coffee flowing from a tumbler.

Coming to the food, the menu is limited and they stick to their guns. They haven't really flooded it with options to make up the numbers which I think is a good thing as they play to their forte. We started with a refreshing rose milk and mint lemonade twister. The former is simply melt material and is easily one of the best rose milks you could have anywhere in the city. The lemonade drink was kind of different and pleasing with a hint of kesar added in.

We crunched along a number of delectable snack based tiffin items starting with rava idly. I'm not the one who is usually very fond of idli's but this greenish idli was simply superb. The neer dosa was quite good as well. The thatta idly could have been a tad better. It looked appealing but didn't really blow away in taste. All the dosa based stuff were very good be it the red rice dosa, mysore masala dosa, special butter dosa or the open masala dosa. The open masala dosa was one of my personal favourites being done up in jaw dropping fashion.

Other than the siege of dosa's, we also tried Khara bath pongal based on sabudana and it was arresting in taste with a subtle hint of black pepper. We also tried Medhu Vada which was reasonable, a crispy mettur vada and also Mangalore buns. We ended our eating encounter with an aromatically rich filter coffee served in traditional steel tumbler. The accompaniments in the form of chutneys were very good and I took a fond liking to the Bangalore sambar which is mildly sweet.

On the whole, it was a very pleasing experience. The rates are nominal and more importantly gives you your moneys worth. The service is quick and you will get your stuff in a jiffy.

If you like tiffin items and want to try them the Karnataka style, 'Eating Circles' Gate should certainly welcome you with open arms and will definitely ensure that you go back delightfully happy after consuming some really top notch stuff.

Noodle Theory - Simple and Effective!

The Noodle theory is a simple but effective model. It works on the ad-lib concept of making your own wok. They have plenty of options and a few of their sauces are killer. They also have couple of starters, bao buns, drinks and brownies to complement the stringy noodle intake.

It's virtually a 5 step process where you first get to choose the base product ie the rice or noodles. You have bountiful options here with some rare choices also such as vermicelli rice, udon, soba etc. Once you're clear with the base product, next up is choosing the protein where you have tofu, panneer and just veggies. Once you're sorted on that front, you need to pick your veggies. You can choose as much as 5 types ranging across basic as well as exotic kinds. After that it's about picking the sauce which you want to cook your noodles/rice with. This is the one that can confuse you as you have plethora of choices from mild ones to the really wild spicy one's. Interesting concoctions such as japanese red wine, mallaka etc are available. And then the finale is closing out with the garnish. You can choose any 2 products from a stack of 7.

We were a group and tried a number of rice and noodle options. I found most of the sauces to be really good and the noodles were well constructed with abundance of flavours. There were certain surprises such as the vermicelli rice noodles cooked with a teriyaki sauce which was terrific. The jasmine rice aroma took our breath away. And almost all the noodle fare pressed the right buttons.

On the starters, we tried all of them which were available and the winners happened to be tofu in pepper overdose and the crispy chilli potato. The former especially packed a punch and the raw spiciness with the chunky tofu garnished with Chinese spices satisfied my desideratum.

We also tried a couple of their Bao buns namely the veggie and chilli panneer version and both were quite nice. The brownies were quite average but this was more of a filler to our meal and it isn't fair to expect too much out of them. They also have a bunch of drinks named after interesting personalities. The lemon based ones with a tinge of ginger were especially refreshing and ideal for the tongue.

Overall, it was a resounding thumbs up. They've done their best within the limited arrangements. It seems to be buzzing with people thronging the outlets at regular intervals. It isn't a traditional fine dining kind of outlet but the quantity and taste makes you think otherwise as what they served ticked the boxes on almost every front.

If you like your noodles and sauces and want to consume a slurpy based meal filled with an aroma flavours and interesting ingredients, the Noodle Theory is sure to entice you.