Explore the magic of Isaan food at this Southeast Asian eatery in Chennai

Chennai's Soy Soi is holding a Thai food festival, called Isaan, named after an area in Northeastern Thailand, to bring the magic of Thai food to you in terms of aromas and flavours. With plenty of vegetarian and non-vegetarian options to choose from, we decided to give it a try.

We started with the Gaeng Om Gai. This is basically a chicken soup for the soul, with lemongrass, kaffir lime and fennel. The combination of these three in a hot broth means the soup also has medicinal values, and is good if you have a cold or even feeling a little feverish. It just cleans up your system and it tastes so good, you will return for second helpings. Next came the Miang Kham.

Chennai's Soy Soi is hosting an exciting Thai food festival

Now this was a trickier affair to handle, with peanuts, ginger, lime and coconut all bound into a betel leaf. The betel leaf itself is folded into a shot glass, so it can take a bit of dexterity to lift the whole assembly and put it into your mouth without spilling the contents! However, once you have successfully managed to do so, you will be rewarded with an explosion of flavours but in a cold appetiser…much of the flavour also comes from the cold betel leaf, and it is surprisingly tasty.

Time to move onto salads, and we were served the Som Tam Mamuang, Its been sometime since we had tasted raw green mangoes, and the sharp taste certainly managed to excite our palate. This was combined with long beans, tender coconut and cherry tomatoes with a dressing made with lime, that was both s[icy and sour. This was a different Som Tam, to the ones we are generally accustomed to as those have more a hint of sweetness, but this we are told is more of an Isan province specialty. At Soy Soi, the savoury dried shrimp and fish sauce has been omitted, thereby converting this into an Indian vegetarian dish. The result is not bad – it actually plays with your tastebuds quite well and is a good precursor for more food to come.

Our next dish was the Pik Gai Yang. Large chicken wings stuffed with more chicken and marinated in a Northeastern style Thai sauce and grilled, is served with a sweet chilli sauce that does add quite a lot of flavour to this unusual dish. Its again a combination of spice from Northeast Thailand and the sweet chilli sauce that gives the wings a sweet and sour taste profile, that helps distinguish it from normal wings elsewhere. Sai Oua was a flavourful medley of Northern Thai pork sausage, minced with herbs, chilli and peanut relish served on a Thai roti. This was a great bite and tasted just right. Time for the main course and we tasted two. Gaeng Hang Lay Belgian pork belly utilising ginger, tamarind and other spices. Served with Jasmine steamed rice, this combination works unusually well and is sincerely recommended, The Khao Soi Gai Chiangmai is a curried chicken bowl with the flavours of tofu and beansprouts, with lime and pickled mustard greens. An unusual combination, but again a dish that comes thoroughly recommended.

If you are the kind who is fond of Southeastern flavours in food, the Isaan food festival at Soy Soi could just be what the doctor ordered this weekend!

Meal for 2: INR 1,550++

Till 30th June, 12pm to 11pm.

At Soy Soi, Kotturpuram