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CHERNNAI: At your average ice-cream parlour, you’d get to choose anything from chocolate fudge to truffle shavings to go with your vanilla ice cream. Put simply, there is a certain joy in watching your ice-cream ‘assembler’ put your sundae together. At Bellaria, that joy just gets a wee bit bigger, as they custom-make your ice cream from scratch, right before your eyes. Think flavours from brownie and biscotti to a more desi gulab jamun ice cream, or even the unconventional sweet corn flavour, and you’d understand why they’re called diverse. “There comes a point when you get tired of seeing the same old flavours all the time and you want to try something new,” says Avanthi Vissa, who runs the two-week-old dessert nook on Chamiers Road, along with husband Gopal.She adds, “All our ingredients are completely fresh. So, if you want us to make even a basic strawberry ice cream, we use fresh strawberries, sugar and milk. No essence or preservatives.” And all it takes is a matter of five minutes to whip up.The couple recently moved back to Chennai from New Jersey just so their two-year-old daughter would be more in touch with her roots. “I wanted to do something that would give me more time with her as opposed to working the long hours that we were used to in the US,” explains Avanthi, who is also a food scientist by profession. Before they hit on the idea of working with ice cream and customised-scoops on the spot, Gopal reveals that they did consider trying liquid nitrogen frozen ice cream as well. “Unfortunately it comes with a big hazard,” he elaborates. “I mean you could freeze your finger off by accident.” No doubt, that would require ‘parental advisory’ to be posted outside, most definitely a taboo for an enterprise that thrives on toddlers and other kids.We walk over to the freeze pans for a glimpse of the making process after placing an order for a double scoop Mint Chocolate ice cream. Gopal demonstrates, “The first step is to drop some milk, chocolate and fresh mint leaves into the blender.” Next, the mixture is poured on to a freezing pan and spread out as thinly as possible for the quickest results. Avanthi pipes in, “We started with five minutes and now, we manage to finish making it within three-and-a-half minutes if you’re lucky.” Once the mixture is frozen over, it is then scraped, flipped, pounded and spread out again for the perfect consistency and voila, scooped into a bright pink bowl for tasting. Also available for cookie enthusiasts are multiple choices of themes to order. “We recently catered for a ‘casino night’ among friends. So, there were peppermint cookies moulded into the shape of mini clubs, hearts, spades and diamonds,” says Gopal. “There were even cookie replacers for casino chips,” he smiles. Ice cream is priced at `70 – `150 (depending on ingredients) for a standard two scoops. Cookies are priced at `20 – `40 per piece)
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