And here I am, soon enough walking into Nala's Appakadai on the noisy, polluted GST road in Chromepet, into an ambience quite in contrast to the one that I just left. 'Panneer tikka free with Veg meals' and another similar offer for the non-vegetarian, which I don't seem to remember for how long is on display. A very nice, neat and clean place, the way we like restaurants to be (though I couldn't figure out why the same song was looping over and over all through, though I like Chinmayi, though I don't mind listening to her over and over).
We just had to try the dish that lends the name to the restaurant so the round of order for Appams went and Brinjal curry with it (something that am not fond of). Food arrived in pretty white wares, that lend such a pretty background for pictures. Watching it through the Digicam's LCD got the tummy to growl.
Umm.. We should really conduct a study on the eye-stomach co-ordination. The temptation was too much to resist and the Appam was gone in no time, with the hated-vegetable adding great taste to the meal. Now I think of it, the Appams were so enticing that I actually forgot the Baby Corn Fry, the Butter Naan and all else that went along. Loved the place and wouldn't think twice about having Appam here again.
The heat wave really made the craving for some frozen dessert worth it. Next stop was Ibaco, a subsidiary of Hatsun/ a sibling of Arun Icecreams, with its nice new business model. There were a good many choices for the icecream, with good many toppings. Brownie's always seducing, so the choice was made. Scotch and Brownie with Chocolate Shavings and Chocolate Sauce. Maybe I should've just asked for more brownie topping :/ A small and neat place, with not too many chairs, which seemed to have been built with only people in pairs in mind. 60 bucks for a cup seemed worth it.
On the stretch, has sprung a few showrooms as well, but what I could gather from the woes of 2 fellow shoppers was that there was nowhere to cater to women's formals, neither Reliance Trends, nor Mega Mart, only 2 probable places.
So, Chromepet seems quite self-contained with a good measure of entertainment, when taking into account the only decent theatre around. Vettri/Rakesh, for people who weren't lucky enough to get seats for that hot movie in one of the hot theatres and who're not ready to plunge into the Chennai heat wave, just to visit one of those hot theatres.
