Moutan by Taiwan Maami
In May 2024, Theresa Hu and her husband Kannan Swamy introduced the city to authentic bubble tea through Taiwan Maami, a bubble tea cafe in Palladium mall, Velachery. Now in T Nagar, their new restaurant Moutan has bubble teas of course, but alongside pillow brioche with a dulce de leche crust , shaved snow with crème caramel, and a savoury menu as well, at a more accessible price point. “We were keen to offer the same quality as Taiwan Maami, but at Moutan prices,” says Kannan, of their new venture.
Pillow brioche
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Special Arrangement
The pillowy-soft brioche comes with a dusting of matcha powder and blueberry compote heaped on top and is just the perfect amount of sweet. From their boba menu, we sample their newest addition, the popping boba which can be added to slush pops of different flavours ranging from jeera masala and lassi, to coconut, lemon and watermelon. Their milk teas include saffron, cinnamon, matcha and the Hong Kong style yuen-yueng milk tea variants and can be ordered with or without their boba, specially imported from Taiwan.
“Our savoury menu includes simple, street-style Asian foods that pair well with bubble tea and to keep the flavours authentic, we make everything from the chilli oil to the 13-spice mixture in-house,” Theresa says. Their hand-pulled biang biang noodles and the yaki onigiri or crisp Japanese rice balls make for a flavourful savoury relief from sampling their desserts and teas. Finish up your meal with ribbons of milky shaved ice that comes in different flavours including strawberry sherbet, mango coconut and banana chocolate, topped with fresh fruit, or bite-sized mochi in different flavours.
Moutan is at 29, Burkit Road, CIT Nagar East, T Nagar and is open from 12pm to 12am.
Kueh and Kopi
Mithila Jayaraj says Kueh and Kopi, a cute and cosy cafe, was her mother Nirmala Devi’s idea and a space for them to explore their Malaysian roots through food. “Kueh means dessert in Malay and there are several Malaysian desserts on the menu as well as other East-Asian sweet treats,” Mithila says, of their menu. We bite into ondeh ondeh, small, sweet glutinous rice balls covered with coconut shavings and a hit of pandan flavour and dig into a spongy pandan tres-leches, which comes drenched in coconut milk and topped with bits of pandan jelly. “People are keen on experimenting and are excited to come and try new flavours. South Indians in particular love coconut and many of them take to pandan positively as well,” Mithila says.
Ube toast
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Also on their menu are Milo bingsu (shaved ice), cendol (a chilled coconut milk beverage with homemade pandan jelly, rose jelly, crushed ice and a rich palm sugar syrup from Malaysia), mango cheesecake shaped like a cheese block from the Tom and Jerry cartoons, and crisp buttery toast topped with a generous dollop of purple yam or ube flavoured coconut jam.
“The Kopi here is the Malaysian white coffee, which has a unique aroma and taste to it. The coffee beans are roasted with margarine, salt and butter, which makes the beans dark and flavourful. Our customers love the iced Kopi, which goes great with desserts,” says Prabhu Mejel, co-founder, Kueh and Kopi.
Their cafe also has shelves stacked with ramen, a certified hit among their K-culture loving customers along with their Korean cream cheese buns and corn dogs.
Kueh and Kopi is at 2, Co-Operative Colony Road, Austin Nagar, Alwarpet.
Scoop Dawg
Chef Shriram Rajendran calls Scoop Dawg, his ice cream brand with the chuckle-worthy name, a ‘frozen-forward’ brand. “We have protein ice creams, yoghurts, popsicles, chocobars, gelatos, sundaes, and everything else that you can think of that is frozen,” he says. On one side of Double Roti in Teynampet, Scoop Dawg’s tubs of ice creams occupy space under bright lights and pops of colours on the walls. “I had done ice creams with The Table, but that was largely something people ordered online,” he says. “With Scoop Dawg, we were keen to have an offline brand catered to Gen Z. Hence the bright colours and the innovative, fun flavours,” he says.
Taro ice cream at Scoop Dawg
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Scoop Dawg’s bold line-up of flavours includes a pani puri sorbet, zero abv gin and tonic, and Negroni sorbets, ice cream scoops in flavours ranging from burrata to black sesame, and familiar flavours such as milo and caramel popcorn. “We try to be as different as possible with our flavours; which is why even the vanilla is Pollachi vanilla bean, burnt butter and honey,” Shriram says. We sample the Taro bubble tea flavour, a light purple coloured, creamy scoop that allows the flavours of its sweet, starchy main ingredient to shine. This is their most popular flavour, we hear. Giving into the Instagram hype of the viral Dubai chocolate, we also try Scoop Dawg’s Dubai chocolate bars, which make for the perfect ice cream substitute for the actual chocolate bar that brings together chocolate and pistachio.
“We are keen on experimenting with flavours, and keep switching up and introducing newer flavours, especially for the sorbets according to the season,” Shriram adds.
Scoop Dawg is at First Street, 4/27, Cenotaph Road, Sri Ram Nagar, Alwarpet, and is open from 11am to 11 pm.
Amour Ice Cream
Would you eat garlic ice cream? Or even a cold scoop with a subtle green chilli flavour hit? Amour, an ice cream brand from the popular biryani chain Dindigul Ponram aims to introduce diners to ice creams in native flavours.
Green chilli ice cream
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“From gulkhand made of roses from Nilakottai to bananas from Sirumalai, we have several native ingredients that we wished to showcase through our ice creams. This has always been highlighted in our food as well, and it was only natural that we wanted to replicate the same in our ice creams,” says S Mani Ram, from the Ponram family. Stating that his uncle started the ice cream brand in 2014 back in Dindigul, Mani Ram says that they decided to bring it to their Chennai restaurant earlier this year. “There are no synthetic colours, essence, or gelatin. Our flavours include pancake, karupatti, gulkhand, fig and honey, jackfruit, banana, as well as unique flowers such as garlic, green chilli and ginger,” he says.
Made of garlic from Poombarai, and green chillies from Virakkal, Amour’s savoury flavours prove to be a great pick. The sharp, spicy hit of the green chilli ice cream in particular makes for a unique tasting experience. “For diners at the restaurant, we are happy to provide samplers and some families are even enthusiastic to guess what flavours they are trying. The savoury flavours are proving to be a lot more popular than we anticipated,” Mani Ram adds.
Amour is at Dindigul Ponram, 90/35, 1st Street, Ashok Nagar, and is open from 11am to 11pm.
