Ramada plaza springs up an all-new Asian menu

CHENNAI: With abundant options in Pan-Asian fine dining and the newly-discovered love for the cuisine among Chennaiites, Asian restaurants in the city are doing all they can to up their game. Keeping pace with this growing love is Scallion-Soul Food Studio at Ramada Plaza, which has launched a new Pan- Asian menu. With a wholesome selection of soups, dimsums, appetisers, sushi and desserts, chef Shyam Lama pulled his years of experience to create a menu that blends Vietnamese, Singapore-Chinese, Japanese, Thai and Malaysian flavours.

“We have packed flavours of different countries in this menu. Singapore-Chinese varieties and salads are my favourite in the spread,” said Lama. The menu has just about everything you would want to see coming out of an Asian kitchen — rice stick noodles, crispy lotus stem, Thai salad, water chestnut dessert, Vietnamese noodle soup, pork with pok choy and more. Cordial service with great cooking using ingredients like galangal, lemongrass, kafir lime leaves, rare varieties of mushroom and noodles will loosen up the tight knots that you’ve got from a hectic work week. The menu features several options for both vegetarians and non-vegetarians. Vegetarians can try the usual suspect Tom Yum soup along with their special crunchy Thai mango salad.

The corn tartlets with lightly herbed and buttery crust envelope the sweet and savoury corn, offering a perfect melt-in-the-mouth. The vegetarian versions of sushi and braised broccoli with mushroom and tofu are a must-try. Pandan chicken with chicken wrapped in screwpine leaves is an assault on the tastebuds. While you are still recovering from this, try the dimsum basket offering a range of stuffing inc l u d i n g prawn and b a m b o o shoots. But if you prefer something tried and tested, you could opt for traditional Nasi Goreng, Char Kway Teow (Singapore seafood rice stick noodles) and Thai masaman curry which is a coconut- based lamb broth, for the main course.

We suggest you graduate from one course to the next, slowly because the desserts would feel left out if you give them a miss. The fried ice cream, water chestnuts rubies and longan in coconut milk and Indonesian banana fritters are sure to transport you to a faraway land. “Scallion is the hidden gem of Ramada, which needs to be explored by Chennaiites for an extravagant experience. So far, the feedback has been good,” said Punit Kumar, executive assistant manager, Ramada Plaza. (Scallion-Soul Food Studio is located inside Ramada Plaza at Guindy. Cost for two is `1,500)