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Chef’s Special:

Grilled Aubergine Sandwich

Red Velvet Cupid

Crinkle Cut Fries

Hurricane Fries

Dark Intense

Opening hours: 11 am to 10 pm

Cards Accepted

Meal for 2: Rs 1,200

Summer’s here and there’s nothing better to beat the heat than a tasty ice-cream treat. And when you have the option of crafting your own ice-cream sundae order, to your unique preferences, you’re in sweet-tooth heaven. At Icekraft-Nepal, you can do just that with your sugary delights.

Located at Kamaladi (Between Royal Singi Hotel and Bank of Kathmandu), Icekraft is a popular joint for desserts along with its exotic options for fries, waffles, pancakes, salads and sandwiches. Tasty offerings with the options of the best of coffee drinks and ‘thick shakes’ as well as ‘freaks shakes’ is what Icekraft offers. With the summer reaching its peak and ice-cream lovers thronging ice-cream bars, Icekraft might need to expand to a bigger property soon though.

Alexander McCall Smith

Born: 24 August 1948 (age 69)

Bulawayo, Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe)

Occupation: Writer, professor

Nationality: British

Alexander McCall Smith, 69 now, achieved worldwide fame only in his fifties with the debut of the highly acclaimed ‘The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency’, a series of novels set in Botswana featuring Mma Precious Ramotswe, who feels compelled to ‘help peo­ple with problems in their lives’, as the protagonist. Altogether 18 novels have been published in the series between 1998 and 2017 and they have been translated into 40 languages and sold more than 20 million copies in English alone. The books in the series, The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, aren’t your regular run-of-the-mill detective stories. Here Mma Ramotswe just happens to solve crimes as she goes about her life, all the while drinking copious amounts of tea. In the first book, she is hired to track down a miss­ing husband, uncover a con man, and follow a wayward daughter. And then there is a missing 11-year-old boy, who seems to have been snatched by witchdoctors. The plots are usually simple and the solution simpler but the wit and wisdom with which Mma Ramotswe seems to solve the cases are delightful, to say the least.

All the books in the series work wonderfully as stand-alone books, although you would do well to read them in order if you want to follow Mma Ramotswe’s life prop­erly. What’s also nice about the books is that the stories feel very real. There isn’t that thrill element in any of the books yet they man­age to hold your attention and you are, all the while, rooting for Mma Ramotswe who, with her self-righ­teous ways, makes you smile despite the ridiculousness of many of her actions. She also isn’t made out to be a typical heroine with no flaws and that is what is refreshing about the series.

Smith writes with a great deal of gentle wisdom and good cheer and his books make you happy and at ease while reading and that, we think, is one of the main attributes of a good author. Crime writer Ian Rankin claimed that as the world becomes more politically turbulent, it will find itself increasingly in need of Smith’s heart-warming novels and reading one of the books in this series, that marks its 20th anniver­sary this year, you will realize that perhaps truer words have never been spoken .

If you don’t like the food there, you can always marvel the exquisite motorbikes Genesis Café displays inside its premises (Yes, INSIDE its prem­ises) or in the parking lot. But it’s a rare chance you won’t like the food there either, because the owners at Genesis, some of whom are experi­enced chefs with international exposure, make sure that the bites at are as tasty as the stunning bikes on display.

Although its location is a little obscure, (the first left turn from Pani Pokhari petrol pump if you’re coming from Maharajgunj), Genesis café has a regular group of patrons, mostly bikers and biking enthusiasts. The café opens for breakfast, lunch, dinner and quick in-between bites and is also popular for its “Cheap Friday” events—a one-night offering of exclusive imported drinks at below average prices.  

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Chef’s Special: Nepali Thali By Genesis

                           Fresh Baked Chicken and Mushroom Pie,

                           Chilli Frittata (Italian Omelette)

Opening hours: 9 am-10 pm

Location : Panipokhari, Ktm

Cards: Accepted

Meal for 2: Rs 2,200  

FICTION/MURDER MYSTERY

All By Myself, Alone

Mary Higgins Clark

Published: 2017

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Language: English

Pages: 321, paperback

When you have read too many thrillers, you begin to understand how writers of the genre tend to think and, as a result, you can sort of figure out (with 100 percent accuracy, 99 per­cent of the times) who the killer is after reading about a 100 pages. And that sucks. That’s when you turn to Mary Higgins Clark. Reading her is perhaps that one percent of time you can’t make a correct guess. And that more than makes up for all the times you picked up a murder mys­tery and shoved it back in the book­shelf halfway through, disappointed by the writer and vowing to give up on the genre altogether. The thing with Mary Higgins Clark is that she tells you a story where every character comes to life. She’s not just trying to thrill you with moments and incidents, though there will be plenty of that too.

Take for instance ‘All By Myself, Alone’, where she brings back two of her characters Alvirah and Willy Meehan, last seen in 2016’s ‘As Time Goes By’. Here it almost feels like they continue where they left off as they celebrate their 45th wed­ding anniversary by taking a luxury cruise aboard the Queen Charlotte, which is making its maiden voyage from New York, USA, to Southamp­ton, England. In a myriad of char­acters and their own stories, Clark then injects theft and murder.

Lovers of Agatha Christie can rejoice because reading this latest installment by Clark will bring back fond memories of those days when reading Christie was an unmatched pleasure. The plot feels somewhat similar to Christie’s 1934 master­piece, ‘Murder on Orient Express’, featuring the Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot, which was recently adapted for the big screen as well. But the sense of familiarity is because of the fact that Christie’s novel took place on a train and Clark’s tale of suspense unfolds aboard a ship.

The language is simple and the chapters short. And though Clark simply lets the plot play out till the culprit makes a mistake and gets caught—unlike in her previous works where each suspect would be put under the spyglass, interrogated, and then carefully dismissed—the intrigue quotient is still high in All By Myself, Alone, and Clark, now 90, proves once again that she’s at the top of her game.