No need for snow: Bangsar is freezing over, suddenly & strategically in time for Christmas, transformed into an ice cream wonderland by the milky magicians of Telawi's new Inside Scoop.At least half-a-dozen people _ Edmund, Shiew Li, Derrick & their friends _ appear to labor behind the counter, a clear indication that Inside Scoop is a team effort. The ice cream is produced fresh on-site, channeling skills from a co-founder's Italian gelato-making training.The current flavors favor the classics & the crowd-pleasing choices: Vanilla bean to hazelnut, tiramisu to cookies-&-cream, Valrhona chocolate to pistachio, blueberry cheesecake to durian, pink grapefruit sorbet to strawberry yogurt.Inside Scoop scores strongly for both texture & taste, beautifully lush in smoothness, pleasurably concentrated in purity of flavor.The results straddle the line somewhere between ice cream & gelato, leaning closer to the latter.Edmund's fave: Pistachio, a true treat that distills the deep, distinct essence of this culinary nut.Pink grapefruit sorbet, also an acquired taste. Waffles with ice cream are available here too; each generous scoop of ice cream costs RM7.80, two's RM12.80 & three's RM17.50 (with a surcharge of RM1.50 per scoop for premium flavors like Valrhona choc).

That Place La, a Platinum Lake condo cafe where expectations should likely be lowered. It's a nice, bright & clean setting nevertheless.Wish we could call this a morning-glory, but the baked egg with tomatoes, cheese & chicken ham seems reminiscent of something I'd mix & microwave as a teen. Still, it's merely RM3.50.That Place La scores in the soundtrack department though, playing John Hiatt's 'Have A Little Faith In Me' & Tasmin Archer's 'Sleeping Satellite;' Aspresso relies on 'All Of Me' Sinatra muzak.Not much to say about That Place La's latte; maybe the other dishes here fare better. There's roast chicken, spaghetti bolognese, sago gula melaka & more.

Aspresso, a cozy first-floor hideout at the Danau Kota commercial blocks where customers can customize their all-day-brekkie platters to choose what exactly they want to eat.Five items in one serving cost a very fair RM11.90: An egg-pork-potato fiesta of scrambled/sunny-side-up/omelet (six eggs in one shot!), bacon & hash brown.Other possibilities that can be ordered for this plate include chicken sausages, mashed potatoes, mushrooms & baked beans. Aspresso also offers light meals of sandwiches & pastas.The coffee comprises specials ranging from Indonesian Gayo Highland Acehnese single-origin to Ethiopian Yirgacheffe, crafted meticulously through V60, aeropress, chemex & siphon methods.Aspresso's affogato? Pleasantly creamy.Caution: Wi-fi is not yet available at Aspresso; since Maxis' connection erodes to an E here, phone surfers won't want to linger very long for now.

Lucid Lounge serves a remarkably distinctive menu: All its starters, salads, pastas & pizzas comprise components cooked with alcohol, from tomato soup tinged with red wine to lasagna laced with beer & chili cheese fries enhanced with gin.This burger boasts a juicy 200-gram beef patty marinated in whisky for a smoky-sweet boost that makes its RM36++ price tag easier to swallow.Lucid Lounge's variation of the Filipino sizzling 'sisig,' this one with chicken flakes mingled with beer, chilies, onions, mayo & a raw egg (RM24++). An ideal bar snack.Spicy butter prawns prepared with vodka (RM21++), mixed with curry leaves & cili padi. The liquor is intended to increase the intensity of flavor; the results are debatable but nonetheless deserving of consumption.Service is fairly friendly here, but if we could quibble, the music's too loud at this watering hole, which might force some customers to retreat to the outdoor seats.

If we had to paint a mental picture of Watercolour, it's one of those cafes that flies under the radar, quietly churning out good sandwiches & pastries for its fans.Watercolour isn't content to serve the same old stuff available anywhere. Its Beef Burger Gipfel (RM19) features an Aussie meat patty stuffed with fresh veggies in between croissant-like flakiness. A fun change from ordinary burgers (tastes healthier too, like a real balanced meal).European bread recipes do feature prominently on the menu: Watercolour's hot dog takes a chicken mushroom sausage & jams it into a laugen lye roll, topped with mustard, mayo, olives, onions & gherkins. With potato crisps on the side, it's a fair bargain for RM14.Much more available, from baguettes, bagels, pain au chocolate, sourdough & rye bread ...... to cupcakes, cookies, doughnuts & muffins. It's a smorgasbord of starch; note that air-conditioned seating is limited here, so most customers will have to take a table outdoors. On the bright side, parking is a breeze; plenty of visitors' space inside the Mont Kiara Meridin building.Watercolour's coffee is OK, though not the memorable highlight of this cafe.