Kurtos - Chimney Cakes transported from Hungary!

The chimney cakes concept has caught on big time in a short stint of time. These have originated originally from Hungary and it's nice to see a specialty snack from Europe being transported to our very own Singara Chennai.

Kurtos is located by the side of Besant Nagar Beach and makes for a great evening snack. It is a little higher in rates than your usual short eats but comes across as being pretty stuffed and very filling. This outlet here is a little one and they have varied options on both the savory and sweetened side along with a bit of salads and shakes for company.

I was more aligned to try the savoury ones and hence went for an indian version of a butter panneer kurtos along with a traditional savoury Hungarian cake. I unfortunately didn't have the content to try the sweetened stuff and it's certainly reserved for another day as I'm greatly looking forward to try those ravishing looking cinnamon rolls.

The butter panneer chimney cone was nicely wrapped and what I liked about it was that the stuffing was right upto the brim and you did feel the masala in every bite of that soft dough roll. It was nicely herbed and the cheese garlic essence gave it the crackling taste it needed. I enjoyed relishing this hand held delight as I usually do adore these dunky delights and this one both had the taste and punch to give the perfect complementary effect.

The Hungarian classic chimney cake came with stuffings such as cheese, onion and paprika in a rolled over bread. This was more like a meal based option and the combination worked really well. It was a tad spicy largely due to the element of paprika but aligned very well on the taste factor. All in all, this too was quite enjoyable.

These chimney based items are a good addition to the ever growing Chennai food market and is perhaps another repertoire when it comes to one's snack craving appetite. The more the options always better and being the ever loving food denizen eagerly awaiting to to try varied spreads, these chimney based creations certainly gives an extra fillip to enjoy these fancy joyful wholesome cakes.

Fromage - A cheese friendly affair!

Fromage pronounced as "Fraw-mazh" is the French equivalent of cheese. It's apparent from the name that the ever loved delicacy 'cheese' forms the significant part of the items in their menu. The restaurant is located as part of the 'Somerset' property and is a perfect addendum complementing the happening resto bar 'Radio Room' just by it's wayside.

The interiors are well played. Lovely toned blue doors adorn the settings and the white wall touch ups with meaningful portraits hung showcase the show of this place. It isn't over the top by any means and in fact gives a rosy picture with regard to the surrounding environment.

On the food, they have a menu comprising of a cuisine which has a European touch. Cheese is something which gets instills the Cheshire cat instincts within me and it was a pleasure seeing a card laid out with cheese in all it's splendour.

We were here to try a selective hand picked menu chosen for the day. We started with the soup of the day in the form of a Gouda cheddar which was quite interesting. The cheese was quite subtle but the presence of it could be felt all along.

In the starter section, we had three kinds of veg servings. We began with the delightful spinach, corn and cheddar tarts. These were sinfully cheesy and mouth wateringly mushy. The tarts were so damn soft that it was a feast biting into them with the cheesy liquid melting jocularly inside the mouth. This appetiser was gob smacking awesome. Next, we moved on to the Onion Jam Goat Cheese Rolls. This is as exotic as it gets. The combination worked wonders with the tangoing of goat cheese and caramelised onions in these golden fried rolls coming along with a lip smacking sweet tinged jam. This was another top notch appetiser. And lastly, we had the Tomato confit bruschetta with parmesan. This was a little lesser in awesomeness compared to it's predecessors but nevertheless quite good on it's own fettle. There were tomatoes galore and the shearing of parmesan cheese over crusty slices of bread was quite nice to consume.

The main course was all about Pasta's and it's brethren. The speciality of this place is the cheese wheel where pasta is made in spectacular fashion by scraping and cooking it inside those big sized oval shaped parmesan cheese wheel. The cheesiness was tingling along meltingly over the layered pieces of penne/fusili and it was quite a delight consuming them. You could feel the cheese in all it's fullest fury. Apart from the pasta, we also tried the veg Lasagne which was pretty good made in a tomato base with oodles of cheese spread along. Also was tried the Mac'n'cheese pasta. Though i found this slurpy, the salt content felt a little off.

On the whole, it was a really pleasing and satisfactory meal. You don't get to consume such high quality stuff of imported variety of cheese in many places within the city. And the quality and taste of majority of the items were resoundingly good. The service was amiable and ever ready to help us out. The rates aren't mentioned as the meet was over an invite. Even otherwise for the kind of offerings, the pricing is definitely on the competitive bracket. A shout out to Eazy Diner for hosting us and ensuring that we have an enjoyable meal. You would also like to check their application which will enable you make reservations at various top restaurant's within the country at ease via a click of a button. All in all, it was a meet full of fun and frolic with the satisfaction of a quality meal aced by Fromage.

Au Bon Pain's stunning Cheese Pull Garlic Baguette

After satisfying my sugar craving thanks to Theobrama, my next target was to attack something cheesy. Pizza is too far fetched a task for a single person and so gave it the pass and then exploring further options I came across this quirky outlet 'Au Bon Pain' with a board inscribed on the outside mentioning the introduction of the garlic baguette - a crusty pull apart baguette loaded with mozzarella cheese and loads of garlic butter. It was almost like a telepathic experience and just something I was looking forward to.

The ambiance inside is very zany and looks thoroughly professional. The wood work speaks a touch of class and the lighting just goes so much in sync with the surrounding. It feels like the perfect place for gorging over delightful nic nacs amidst working with your laptop. The color yellow is pretty predominant and it gives a very nice vibe overall. They have outside seating arrangement too and overall paints a pretty picture of the entire set up.

I just went for the regular sized version of the baguette and needless to say I absolutely loved it. It was a delight pulling apart the pieces of bread with the cheese oozing out with all svelte. The aroma of butter with the esculent garlic and herb touch up made it quite a scrumptious experience. It was enjoyable laying my hands on this and getting all squishy, juicy and drooly consuming this crusty piece of bread ingrained with the rightful essentials.

They have plenty of other stuff in the attic and from the looks of it they all seem to be of high quality. This bakery cafe is a fantastic place for munchies and ideally suited for working professionals.

Cheese Poem - For the eternal love of Cheese!

Dear Cheese,

You can truly make me melt;
Coz I feel for you so heartfelt

The emotions you generate are as soft as a feather;
But, the stranglehold you have on me is harder than leather

You will always and forever be my crush;
Just your mere presence is enough to make me blush

One bite into you and I'm bowled;
And in your clutch I'm owned

Bottom or up, sideways or midways you always add value;
That's precisely the reason I fall heels over head in love with you :)

Thank you for being a part of me;
Let the romance continue to be! 💖