With Madras Day (August 22) around the corner, nostalgia is the sentiment of the week. And Strictly Desserts, a new café in Anna Nagar we discovered has a menu carefully curated around this sentiment. Their biggest star on the menu? Bun Butter Jam ice cream. Owner Snehithi Jambulingam (30) tells us that back when her business was a cloud kitchen three years ago, the flavour was created inspired by cherished memories from her school canteen. “But I wasn’t sure how people would receive it.” But she quickly realised that it found a following with a wide range of age groups, she tells us, “from pregnant women to grandparents to toddlers”. Now, 150 ice cream flavours later, Bun Butter Jam has earned its place as mainstay on her menu. “We sell about 50 to 60 litres of it every week,” Snehithi says. There is even a pet-friendly version, on request!
Madras memories
We give it a taste and do a double take because it takes exactly like the promise in the name. A trip down memory lane to that ’90s bakery order from when this reporter was prancing down the street in her school uniform. Other flavours that are ‘made in Madras’ as Snehithi tells us are a pretty pink Rose Milk, Kavuni Arisi and even a Sathyam-inspired Caramel Popcorn. We peer over the ice cream counter, eager to get the back stories on each. “I also have a Milo Dinosaur scoop which has become a big hit. It was the drink that I lived on while studying business in Singapore, at the time an Iced Milo was cheaper than bottled water,” she recalls. With 12 flavours available to choose from, six are on rotation as per season. Our personal favourite turns out to be an unexpected one: Thai Sticky Rice with Mangoes, a recreation of the popular Asian dessert with fresh mangoes from the tree at the back of the building.
Baklava meets cheesecake
The 25-seater space is in fact an extension of Snehithi’s family home, and makes us feel at ease and relaxed. A chalkboard of highlights on the menu, up on the wall, serve as a friendly ice breaker for newcomers unsure of what to try first. The 20-odd options on the café menu include sandwiches, hot dogs, coffee and novel desserts. We opt for the much hyped Hot Chocolate which lives up to the name with 80 per cent dark chocolate in the mix and a Kimchi Hot Dog with spicy chicken sausage served in a milk brioche bun made in-house.
For dessert, we opt for a Red Velvet Tres Leche which looks better than it tastes. But the Baklava Cheesecake is a work of art. Layers of delicate filo pastry brushed with butter cocoon a cream cheese filling topped with dried rose petals and chopped pistachios to garnish. The end result is as pretty as a flower. And one taste will have you smitten for hours.
At D16, 8th Street, 2nd Avenue, Anna Nagar East. Ice cream at INR 120 per scoop, café menu at INR 70 onwards.