Food special: The ice-cream dinner is here

After working as a propriety trader on Wall Street, Tanvi Chowdhri returned to Mumbai this January with one goal - to set up an ice-cream and dessert café. Her husband, Abhinav, who works in the family's steel business, put in his engineering degree to work. "We create premium ice-cream prepared using the liquid nitrogen technique," he explains. Papacream's lower level is done up with white walls and bicycle-wheel-shaped stools. The mouth of three nitrogen taps opens into mixers placed on the main counter. They are the real heros that churn out fresh ice-cream. We take a taste test:

Mexicano Rs 250

We wonder if we are dining at a Mexican restaurant when we taste Mexicano, a scoop of cream cheese ice-cream served with crispy spinach, beet and plain tortilla chips. Sinfully cheesy, the minus 200 degree blast of liquid nitrogen smoothens the granules to create a velvety texture. The crunchy jalapeños pieces in the ice-cream leave a spicy tingle on the palate.

Pani puri sorbet Rs 160

We are particular about how our pani puri should taste - crisp puris, well-boiled potatoes and the spicy pudina and coriander water, laden with the perfect mix of sour black salt, green chillies and Indian spices. So, we raise an eyebrow when we are told the street food delicacy will be served as a sorbet. We write it off, but are proved wrong. The green frozen scoop of tang and spice, which we devour with puri baskets with potato espuma (mousse), is a clear winner.

Spiced guava Rs 90-160

A palate cleanser is meant to neutralise taste buds, but this sorbet makes us time travel to childhood, when we'd bunk class to gorge on the fruit peppered with red chilli powder and black salt. A tough competitor for the pani puri sorbet.

Masala chaas Rs 90-160

Gujaratis like chaas with all their meals. So, why should dessert be an exception? But, unlike the pani puri, this one comes with a flaw. We wish it was a bit low on salt. The chillies, chopped coriander, ginger and cumin powder pack in a savoury punch, but the makers go overboard with the salt.

Thai sushi ice cream Rs 260

We leave the best for last. Six neat sushi rolls, where the nori is replaced with chocolate crepes, sprinkled with rice crispies. It holds a dense coconut ice-cream, with an Asian aftertaste of lemongrass. At the centre is a citrusy piece of passion fruit that breaks the milky monotony of the bite. Instead of soy sauce, there's coffee-flavoured fudge. And it is served with wooden chopsticks. We love.