Mumbai food: Bandra ice-cream parlour offers icy treats with a twist

Blue Cheese Honey Dark Chocolate Italian Truffle Oil and Pondicherry Vanilla are just some of the intriguing flavours mentioned on a blackboard outside a tiny store in a bylane near Bandrarsquos Mehboob Studio A signboard asks patrons lsquoto ring a bellrsquo to place their order as the ice cream parlour is a takeawayonly joint Our press privilege however allows us a glimpse into the boutiqueAlyssa left with sister Simone Chesson at the ice cream parlour PicAtul KambleJust a little larger than an ice cream truck this is where the 20something sisters Alyssa and Simone Chesson have created wildly wonderful scoops Alyssa a Cordon Bleu graduate has harboured the idea since childhood ldquoWhen most little girls wanted dolls I wanted an ice cream makerrdquo Her addiction to ice cream led to her describing her moods with flavours mintchocolate chip meant a good mood and dark chocolate was cryptic for enduring a crushBlue Cheese HoneyPost graduation Alyssa returned to the city to work with Yauatcha and later started Caramel Carousel a takeaway patisserie that still operates from the same address But her dream lived on ldquoI realised there was a gap in the market for allnatural and unique flavoured ice creamsrdquo And Bono was born a little over a month ago with a little help from Simone who manages branding accounts and operationsWhite Chocolate Passion FruitCreaming it upAlyssa runs us through the making They use only organic milk and no preservatives stabilisers or emulsifiers The emphasis is on natural products Alyssa whips up the Blue Cheese Honey right before our eyes She uses the lsquoFrench methodrsquo where the egg yolk and milk are tempered together without allowing the mixture to boil While still warm the milk is poured over the blue cheese Once it reaches room temperature the cream and honey are added to the mix It is then allowed to freezeHazelnutWe taste the finished product which unlike our idea of icecream is savoury Pungent cheese coats the palate followed by a hint of honey while milk evens out the cheesy flavour The burst of unique ingredients plays peekaboo with the palate such that you never know what comes nextIn the Dark Chocolate Italian Truffle Oil you can smell the truffle before you taste it Yet you donrsquot know whatrsquos in store because the earthiness of truffle is met with the bittersweet of dark chocolate making for a strange delicious and indescribable flavourEven the runofthemill Hazelnut scoop tastes different at Bono The secret lies in the fact that the sisters donrsquot skimp on the main ingredients which are almost always exotic and pricey Little wonder that they sell only by the halflitre tub and most flavours cost Rs 600 save for the SugarFree Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Rs 700 and the Dark Chocolate Italian Truffle Oil Rs 900Go naturalThe ice creams live up to their lsquonaturalrsquo tag and you can feel the freshness Everything is whipped up solely by the duo allowing them to monitor the quality In all Bono has 10 yearround flavours along with fiveodd seasonal varieties mdash strawberries in winter and raspberries just as monsoons come to an endIf yoursquore looking for ice cream with a twist head to Bono because therersquos absolutely nothing vanilla about this joint We only wish the space was larger to allow for seating and that they served in single scoops too