Mexican coffee buns at Antari

Antari is a café that occupies one end of the Soul Garden Bistro complex in Kilpauk. What took us all the way there was the promise of fresh and hot Mexican coffee buns.

Breads and bakes

Jignesh Pujara

The café is quite tiny and rather quaint. There's a shelf along one wall that holds yeasted delights. The menu is prominently displayed on the wall above the counter and a large oven occupies pride of place in one corner. I'm quite convinced that Antari is a Spanish word but the genial owner, Jignesh Pujara tells me that it's an acronym - a combination of the names of his children!

Everything on the menu is vegetarian, egg-free, mostly organic, some gluten-free and keto friendly; the breads and buns have no preservatives and are baked fresh every day.

There's cutting chai on the menu... and flavoured teas

While waiting for the other bloggers to show up, Jignesh took me across to 196 Degrees Below, the dessert restaurant where I got to watch ice cream being made with liquid nitrogen. There are plenty of flavours and some unusual ones like chawanprash! I stuck to the classic chocolate orange and marvelled at the smoothness of the ice cream.

Chocolate orange ice cream

Peanut butter & hazelnut toppings. The darker bun is coffee, the other, cinnamon

Caramel and white chocolate toppings

Back at Antari, we learnt that the dough for the coffee buns is kneaded, shaped, filled with a cube of cold butter and left to prove. When an order comes in, the patissier pipes a spiral of the coffee cream or cinnamon cream over the top and pops it into the oven. As it bakes, the topping starts to melt and covers the entire top of the bun. The aroma is irresistible. 15 minutes later, it is pulled out and transferred onto a plate. From here onwards, Antari does it a little different from Papparoti or Rotiboy - the buns get one more topping before being served. Our buns had white chocolate with red velvet crumbs, caramel, peanut butter and hazelnut biscuit.
   

What's inside the bun ...oooh...butter!

Organic tea

The coffee buns have a molten buttery centre with a sprinkle of sea salt. Not as soft in texture as the original but considering this is made without egg, it's definitely good. The coffee flavour is not as strong as in the original but hey, who's complaining! The cinnamon crusted bun has a mild cinnamon-y flavour and if you're wondering if it tastes like a cinnamon bun or even cinnabon, then no. The piped crusts tend to soften the longer they sit around and that could also be due to the toppings so for sure they are best eaten hot. As for the toppings (are they really necessary), I liked the hazelnut the best. The peanut butter topping is homemade, the nuts could have done with a little more roasting. Each of the buns was served with a beverage - our choices were cappuccino, spiced chocolate and a moreish hot chocolate that has just 2 ingredients - a chocolate bar and milk. We had 2 flavoured teas as well - mint and mango. Nice mild flavour but it was the cup with the built in strainer and lid that fascinated us.

Each one of these is a combo

Churro

We also had churros with chocolate sauce. It was light but not as airy as the version with egg. The sauce came in a small bowl, perhaps a small jar would have been easier to dip into.

If just a bun is not enough, Café Antari has a combo offer where you can get a bun and a beverage at 249/-

Peri peri idlies; buffalo potatoes

To offset all that sugar, we had peri peri idlies. It's so very crisp, just a bit oily but absolutely delicious. Buffalo potatoes - baby potatoes, skin on and coated with buffalo sauce was devilishly tangy and springy - as in poke them and they spring back.

Butterbeer!

Fans of Harry Potter might be interested to know that Jignesh has concocted his version of butterbeer. It's golden yellow and served with cream on top. You need to mix both together and then drink it. It's sweet, a bit fizzy and a hit with the young ones.

Café Antari is at 86/87 New Avadi Road, Kilpauk, Chennai.
044 48510161.

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Belgium indulges Chennai

Belgium is the land of the Smurfs, waffles, chocolate and diamonds, and beer, of course. Lucky us - the Belgian Consul General's office decided to indulge Chennai with a taste of Belgium and flew in some awesome beers, exotic ingredients and renowned chef Vincent Tibau who cooked us a fine dining experience that included a Smurf tart!!

Chef  Vincent with Chef Mauro

The Arena, 365 A.S. is the venue of the 10-day festival. Mark Van de Vreken, Belgium Consul-General inaugurated the festival that showcases some of the country's food, brews and techno music.

Seriously?? 800 kinds of beer??

Chimay Rouge

The evening was warm but there was lots of beer to cool parched throats. Chimay, Delerium, Affigem and Hoegaarden seemed to be popular choices of the evening. The Chimay Red that I tried is a Trappist ale, strong, darkish and slightly fruity with a good head. These beers are brewed by Trappist monks and the beer is served in customised glasses. In fact, all the beers were served in custom designed glasses.

Herring roe decorates cream of cauliflower with parsley coulis

Asparagus a la Flamende - you could be forgiven for thinking this was penne pasta!!

The food was a surprise. Chef Tibau had laid out a good variety of Belgian dishes that included quite a few vegetarian ones. Ingredients had been flown in from Belgium and what was interesting was that a couple of dishes had been cooked in beer. The cream of cauliflower was a sufficiently light appetiser and the herring roe on it, a nice touch. Flemish-style white asparagus had lengths of the tender vegetable paired with boiled eggs, perfect harmony of flavour and colour.

Mussels in Belgian white beer sauce

Pommes pont neuf; lobster and fish in foamy emulsion

By now, everyone knows that French fries actually originated in Belgium. Pommes pont neuf were thick cut and cooked three times till the outside was crisp and the inside floury and soft. They were served with Chef Tibau's special tomato sauce.

Braised chicory with creamy cheese truffle sauce

North Sea shrimp croquettes

Parsnip & mushroom in Belgian beer; Vincent's twist on waterzooi

The shrimp croquettes were delicious, no wonder too as the making was labour intensive. Braised chicory in cheese truffle sauce was a study in contrasts - the slight bitterness of the vegetable was offset by the flavour of cheese. Parsnip and mushroom in beer was another interesting combination. The flavour of beer was mildly discernible and the vegetables and sauce were fab. The chef's twist on waterzooi, a chicken stew, looked very pretty but the chicken skin that was served with it was very salty. 

Smurf tart; waffle with raspberry jelly & chocolate; brownie with coconut gel & meringue; pannacotta cherry beer granita

We had an assortment of desserts to end the meal. There was Smurf tart but thankfully, nothing blue about it. It was a disc of pastry topped with apricot compote, whipped cream and a sprinkling of white chocolate. The waffle was not the Liège version but the tangy raspberry jelly and sweet chocolate sauce made for a comely pairing. The brownie had strong coconutty overtones but the best was the pannacotta with cherry beer granita. It was tart and sweet and being a fan of anything almond flavoured, this was the absolute standout for me. 

Belgium will continue to indulge Chennai till May 6th. It's a wonderful opportunity to taste Belgian brews that will soon be available at Chennai. Chef Vincent Tibau's specialties too will be available à la carte.

Do reach Hyatt Regency Chennai at +91 44 61001234.

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Art brunch at Paprika Café

Paprika Café at Courtyard by Marriott was the venue of the Sunday Art Brunch where art and food occupy parallel worlds. From the artist's palette, there's a series of paintings on diverse subjects; the chef expressed his art through food that tempted the palate. A bond had been created, one that filled our senses and tastes with flavour, pleasure for the eye and food for the soul. Symbiosis?

Paintings by Pradeep L Mishra, Madhu Venugopal, K Sudeesh and PP Pradeep were displayed around the lobby and café. My knowledge of art is zilch but Curator Jitha Karthikeyan told me that like food, art was open to interpretation.

Pradeep Mishra and "Living High Hope"

Living High Hope - Pradeep Mishra

Motherland - Pradeep Mishra

Pradeep Mishra explained that the stem of the rose he painted was composed of several layers till the texture and colour was just right, signifying the struggle we go through every day just to survive.

Departure from the Land - K Sudeesh

Boatman
Island Cherala series - K Sudeesh

Still Life - PP Pradeep

An Antique Piece of Love - Madhu Venugopal 

Ajay with his brews; charcoal burgers

Art appreciation is serious work but Ajay's bartending skills knew how to keep us engaged. He's got some interesting infusions and his version of the Asian gin and tonic with green tea and spices was fab.

Chef Sanjeev Ranjan

Rosemary and cornflake biscuit with mango sphere

Executive Chef Sanjeev Ranjan's food art was one that I could understand much better - innovative salads, cheeses, a stall with black food and the cheong fun stall with fusion fillings was designed to add colour and texture to the palate. The chef was a busy man, giving instructions to his team, putting deft touches to plates and interacting with the guests.

Salads

Cheese wheel for pasta; black food

Ceviche!

There were some unusual salads and salad pairings. The mascarpone cheese with olive dust that I shared with a friend was mind blowing. Pops of colour from a beautifully cured ceviche presented in mussel shells was definitely what a summer salad is all about - light and zesty.

Spectacular pork belly roast glazed with maple syrup added a subtle sweetness though the crackling didn't quite crackle

Sushi with wasabi discs and black soy caviar

Cheong fun

Chef Paritush's cheong fun stall made paper thin steamed pancakes; stuffings included chicken, prawn, cabbage and mushroom. They're really yummy especially when topped with soya sauce caviar!
 

Starters and bisque

Paprika's famous cheesy thin crust pizza

Some of the starters were served at the table. Thai salad could have been more piquant but the prawn bisque was phenomenal. Many kitchens tend to overcook the shells leaving a faintly bitter aftertaste but here, it had been beautifully done, imparting a wonderful depth of flavour.

Did you know bamboo biryani originated in the Araku valley?

Art on a plate - main course 

The main course was a neatly frenched lamb chop with glazed carrot, olive dust and black rice. The meat was pink in the middle and super tender. You can have bamboo biryani at the biryani 'shed' and even watch it being removed from the cylinder with a few practiced thumps. However, the Hyderabad biryani won hands down - meaty, flavoursome, and absolutely yummy!

Desserts 

Mango mousse baskets; lemon pie

There's so much more that we just couldn't get around to - pastas, squid ink risotto, wraps, pad Thai and the entire Indian section. That was only because the dessert table was calling out to us. It was laden with mousses, cakes, tarts and pies. The mango mousse in a white chocolate shell was deliciously inviting and the unusually presented lemon pie was awesome. You could confidently take a selfie beside the three-tiered chandelier cake knowing that it would not fall on your head.

Art Brunch at Paprika Café is on for the next 3 Sundays, the last one will be on May 13. The spread is vast and except that a couple of dishes were salty, everything else was remarkable in terms of quality and novelty. Impressive indeed.

Art Brunch is from 12.30 - 4 pm and costs 1699++ and 2299++ per head for the non-alcoholic and alcoholic brunch respectively.

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Summer menu at Focaccia, HRC

If you're looking for true Italian food, you'll find it for sure at Focaccia. The Italian restaurant at Hyatt Regency Chennai serves some of the best Italian food in the city. Invited to review the new menu, we were wide eyed as dish after dish made an appearance at our table.

We like it when Chef Mauro Ferrari goes to Italy for a break. Cos we know that when he returns, he brings back new ingredients and new menu ideas to tantalize his diners. Yup, he's done it again!! The menu is perfect for Chennai's summer; the classic dishes are all there and new ones too with lighter interpretations and perfect plating. Yeah, I'm talking about the flowers 😍

Carpaccio di branzino, arcancia, cipollotto, mandrole tostate

Millefoglie di parmiggiano, flan di zucchine al tartufo, crema di carote e formaggio di capra

It's not only Japanese cuisine that has raw fish. Chef Mauro does a sea-bass carpaccio with orange segments and toasted almonds. It's delightfully light and a complete no-carb dish.
Not to be outdone was Parmesan millefeuille, truffle zucchini flan, carrot and goat's cheese cream. The dainty flan was more like a mousse on a sauce of carrot and goat's cheese. Parmesan crisps are studded into the sides of the flan in a spiral. Chef Mauro likes to add a touch of whimsy when he's plating up.

Panzanella, burrata, olive oil & basil; trio of flavoured cheese, dry fruit, apple compote & pear savoury tart

Insalata caprese featured decadent crisp panzanella and creamy burrata; it seems to be the cheese of choice in many restaurants. There was also a trio of cheese balls - feta, goat's cheese and Gorgonzola coated in hazelnuts, pistachio and raisins. We were told to eat them along with the spiced apple compote and a smidgen of balsamic vinegar. I tell ya - there was a party dancing on my taste buds - sweet, salty, spicy, cheesy, crunchy, umami ...did I leave anything out? The pastry of the pear tart was the only thing that didn't quite fit into the scheme of things.

Risotto allo champagne, capesante, riduzione di bisque

Casoncelli verdi all'aragosta fonduta di porri -
green lobster ravioli with leek Parmesan fondue and tempura prawns - so yummy!

Champagne risotto with bisque reduction and scallops was lovely. The creamy rice was so perfectly done, the scallops juicy and the seafood stock - I could drown in that flavour.

Branzino avvolto nelle zucchne, zabaione al pomodoro, verdure saltate

Filletto con riduzione di porcini e vino rosso, patate al bacon e verdue

The fillet of sea bass was wrapped in zucchini ribbons and baked. The meat was moist and the blush pink sabayon a wonderfully creamy accompaniment. There was stiff competition from the melting-ly tender medium-done beef tenderloin and sauce made from porcini mushrooms and red wine reduction, served with mashed potatoes, sautéed zucchini and asparagus.

Zuppa inglese

Meringa alla menta e cioccolato

You just cannot pass up an Italian dessert. Or 2!  It was as if pictures from a food magazine had come to life in front of us. While the zuppa ingeles had chocolate, custard and stewed apples, the mint parfait meringue was exquisite. Delicate crusty meringue, the smoothest of parfaits and raspberry coulis for a touch of zest.

Head on over to Focaccia to taste Chef Mauro's new à la carte menu. And those desserts.
A meal for 2 is about 2500/++.

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