WIlly Wonka @ Cream Stone

Cream Stone is an ice cream chain that combines the flavour of ice cream and other stuff like cakes, candy etc etc on a slab of hard ice until creamy and serves it in a cup or cone.
This Willy Wonka was deadly, lived upto its name - chocolate pastry, chocolate ice cream, chocolate sauce all in one...deadly enough to make us miss dinner.

Lunch date at Golden Dragon

Syn-ful dessert

The choco-tsunami I had for dessert after a wonderful dinner at Syn @ Taj Deccan

Coffee and conversations

@ Mocha  near our place

The first Mocha in Bombay which started at Bandra was one of our regular haunts to catch up with friends - superb ambience, restored flea market furniture, the smell of coffee in the air and the best apple pie ever - kept taking me back to the place...

The one in Hyd was a poor imitation of the original - their Blueberry Brain freezer shake was good though, apple pie that we brought home to eat for dessert was horrible, no sign of apple - just some crumbled mix as the filling inside a hard crust! If you ever visit this Mocha, stay away from this seasonal 'fruit' pie!

Kerala Day 7 - Teapot tearoom

Enroute to Jew Town on the morning of our last day in Kochi, we stopped by this quaint cafe, which true to its name, holds some hundreds of teapots in different colours, shapes, sizes and material.
As if that was not enough, the tables were old tea cases, there were sketches of teapots and teacups on the walls, old photos and pictures from tea estates - and for a tea lover like me it was heaven.

Teapot
Peter Celli Street, Fort Cochin
Kochi, Kerala 682001
0484 2218035

More about this place in The Hindu

Kerala Day 6 : Fort Kochi again - Brunton Boatyard

Another one of those hotels done up with a colonial air about it - right from the Armoury Bar to the terracotta tiled reception, the Burma teak furniture to the antique accents, I was absolutely in love with this place. With a bent for bright colours in decor, I was surprised that I loved these earthy colours so much - I felt transported to another time. I loved the little eco friendly touches around the place like the small mul hankies kept in the washrooms to dry hands instead of using paper or electric blowers.


Another highlight of Day 6 was a Kerala sadya on banana leaf at this place Sarovaram in Kochi - I absolutely enjoyed the food there, possibly the best meal for me in the entire trip. If you are in Kochi, do not - i repeat do not miss an opportunity to have a meal here.

Resources:
Brunton Boatyard
BTH Sarovaram

Kerala Day 1 - Dinner at Fort Kochi

We left Hyderabad late afternoon on the 30th, and airports in both Hyderabad as well as Kochi are located quite a distance from the main residential areas - so we reached Fort Kochi around 8 pm - checked ourselves into the Cochin Club and headed out to Malabar House for dinner at their fine dining restaurant, Malabar Junction. The eco friendly decor and the old world ambience coupled with the small lamps hanging from the frangipani trees more than made up for the humidity.

Their menu was made up of Kerala fusion cuisine, which was a new taste for us.

The Malabar House
Malabar Junction - The restaurant
Fort Cochin
1/268 – 1/269 Parade Road
Fort Cochin 682001
Kerala
India
Tel: 0091 484 2216666 / Fax: 0091 484 2217777

Mavalli Tiffin Rooms

After having heard so much about this legendary eatery, I finally got a chance to taste their food. Luckily for me, they have opened a branch in a nearby mall, so we did not have to travel too much.

We tried their idli-sambar, rava dosa, masala dosa, chow-chow baath, baadam milk and coffee between the four of us (Atri included) - and every single thing tasted absolutely wonderful. Their sambar was to die for - no trace of sweetener like how we find it in most cities.

Tiffin time

When we passed one of the branches of the famous Minerva Coffee Shop, we had to step in. Pesarattu, Chole Bhature and filter coffee downed, needless to say that made an early supper for us.

P.S.
To the two guys who got captured in the frame by default, sorry!

Hangout

We've been having a gala time with our friend from Bombay and we went searching for an ice cream early in the evening. This place called Oranges N Lemons had caught my attention for its bright and spacious interiors on one of my drives and we took off in search of this.
Sadly they didn't have much of a variety on ice creams, but the long juices and shakes menu, with interesting bye-lines more than made up for that. The three of us made ample fun of their descriptions and laughed hard. The had most of the board games stacked up for people who wanted to play, wi-fi for the facebook addicts :) - not having too much time on hand, we played a game of Snakes and Ladders - and we laughed so much, we had forgotten how much fun this game was, especially when your opponents come down long snakes :)
Over-all the evening was great fun!

At brunch

The brunch was just another buffet spread, the skylight seemed more interesting a capture :)

Courting the food

An exclusive food-court and gaming zone in the city - food was pretty decent, yet to try out the bowling alley :)