Chocolate Nmore: Home-made delight

ChocolateNmore, Hyderabad
The USP of this joint run by fashion designer Yojana Veerender is that her chocolates are all home-made and with ingredients sourced from her overseas relatives. You have a choice ranging from the hard-centred ones like Almond Rocks and Fruit'n'nut to softer ones like Rum'n'Raisin and Fudge Centres. A 250-gram pack costs just Rs 150.
Phone: 040-23397639

Kavitha's: The liqueur boutique

Kavitha's, Bangalore
Run from her home in Bangalore's upmarket borough Koramangala, R. Kavitha's boutique specialises in liqueur chocolates. The other popular flavours she offers include black currant, strawberry soft centre and orange jelly. She uses only imported Selbourne chocolate for her preparations. Ergo, chocolates at Kavitha's are made against order. Prices range from Rs 450 to Rs 1,200 per kilogramme.
Phone: 080-5535498

Les Chocolats de Jodhpore: The French connection

Les Chocolats de Jodhpore, Delhi
The story goes that fashion designer Raghavendra Rathore discovered an old hand-written French menu with the mention of exotic chocolates at his palace-turned-museum, Ajit Bhawan, and that gave him the inspiration to come up with the most sought-after chocolate range in the country. The Majestic Medallion, an amalgamation of smooth chocolate and crispy bits of cashew, and the Royal Chariot, a butterscotch toffee mixed with rich smooth chocolate, are the two most popular of his products. A box of chocolate, at Rathore's contains 17 pieces and costs Rs 475. These are available at Rathore Studios and 40 other select stores in Delhi.
Phone: 011-26431834

Chocossieur: Chocolates for one and all

Chocossieur, Mumbai
Film-maker Priti Chandriani's Chocossieur offers authentic European-style chocolates perfected with a helping hand from a Belgian chocolate specialist. On offer are 30 tempting varieties to suit every taste, wallet, and occasion. You can sample all her chocolate varieties in Connoisseur's Delight, an assorted 500 gram pack that costs Rs 580. Don't miss the current bestsellers: one with the tea flavour and Figuera, which has hazel nuts and figs. For those who love alcohol there's Cognac Truffle and Grand Marnier. Diabetics needn't lose hope. Chandriani has sugar-free varieties in the pipeline too.
Phone: 022-24711645

AFTER HOUR

Cafe Coffee Day, Bangalore: Look ma, no wires

Café Wi-Fi
A few years back, a certain activist woman writer in the country, billed by some as ''our home grown Rosa Luxemburg'', proclaimed, ''I'm a mobile republic.'' If she were to ever visit the Café Coffee Day outlet in Bangalore's Lavelle Road, she'd have to slightly alter her statement to read, ''I'm an internet-enabled mobile republic.'' That's because this is the only place in India wherein people can wirelessly connect to the net, surf, or exchange mails from any corner of the café. This wireless cyber spot was conceived by chip design company Ittiam's founder Srini Rajam during a layover at Dallas airport where he was taken in with the wi-fi-enabled cafe. At Café Coffee Day, a 256-KPBS modem hooks you to an infobahn for lightning speed access at Rs 100 a hour. If you want to surf using your own laptop, make sure it has a station card (cost: Rs 2,500), or choose from one of the five laptops available at the café. You can sit anywhere-even sprawl on the couch-while surfing. And the mobile republics, if there are any around, can sip some Mocha.

-Venkatesha Babu

Snazzy spectacle
No out-of-bounds display windows and no lurking salesmen. That's Ottica, the new "eyeware" store at Delhi's Basant Lok Complex. It stocks the coolest shades from ysl, Christian Dior, even Harley Davidson, with prices ranging from Rs 700 to Rs 14,500. But sorry, no Ray-Bans here. "Aren't there enough places selling them already?" asks Ottica's CEO Hardeep Singh. We concur.

-Ankur Sabharwal

Waves, Delhi: A taste of the west coast

Hotel California
I have never been to california, and probably never will, given my current meagre means (I hope my editor is reading this). But thankfully, a culinary trip to the west coast, (and it doesn't require gre or Mensa scores), at the newly opened Californian lounge and restaurant Waves, in south Delhi's Sarvodaya Enclave, is within my reach.

Grilling and baking are the essence of Californian cuisine that makes it far lighter than other American cuisine. And California being a cultural melting pot, there are plenty of outside influences in the food. I start off with skewered meatballs with Jack Daniels barbecue sauce. The soft, smoky taste complements my glass of Jack Daniels rather well. For the main course I chose stuffed breast of chicken in beer and garlic and some winter casserole with herb dumplings along with hot and freshly baked garlic bread. The ambience is understated and the service quick, but don't ask me about the bill. No wonder California is home to Hollywood, and Mammon.

-T.R. Vivek