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“Let’s go Shang-Chi this weekend?” my friend asked me. I was down for it the next moment. “Sure, Let’s go!”. After a moment of deliberation, I enquired, “Shang-Chi is a restaurant, yea?”. A moment of shock later, “Marvel just died”, my MCU pundit-friend replied. Sorry, MCU fans, the thought of having Asian food was just in the back of my mind after stumbling across a few dishes while scrolling Zomato. However, the movie plan withered away two days later, and I suggested a replacement – Now that we have Asian food in context, how about we grab some this weekend? The plan was on.
Never make a decision when you’re hungry – one of the life lessons I’ve learnt over the years. Decisions include what to eat too. So, I was on my phone looking up Asian restaurants on Google right after breakfast. Most of the listings were of pure-Chinese restaurants, which were a tad generic. The ‘Pan-Asian’ types were Little Soi and Nasi and Mee. Both these hotels had extraordinary 4.4-star ratings on both Google and Zomato. Now that there’s nothing much to differentiate the duo, we did a toss-up considering the distance. Nasi and Mee were closer, and so we fixed it.
The map location showed MG-Road, and I was sceptical about the parking space on offer. Did we make a mistake by taking the car? The road to the restaurant was narrow, but lo and behold, there were acres of space once we crossed the gate. The place was a shopping complex, with Nasi and Mee on the second floor. So, if you’re in Kochi and plan to take your car to the restaurant, then this place is a viable option.
The restaurant was moderately crowded; there were a couple of vacant tables. The waiter guided us over and brought two extensive cardboard-printed menus. The dish names were packed into the banner, with an occasional picture of the type of dish. Me being a total noob to Asian food looked at my friends for their opinion. Both of them had their inputs, although the three of us were on our first visit here.
The names on the menu puzzled me. There were familiars like Chow, Tofu and alien ones like Goreng, Nasi, and Mee (it turns out both Nasi and Mee are types of Asian food). I left the decision making to my two knowledgeable pals. The waiter came up to take the order.
For the starters, we ordered a Malaysian Chicken Satay. As for the main course, I had my mind on the Kung-Pao dish (it sounded fancy). After deliberation, we decided to stick with two Mees – Mamak Mee Goreng with chicken and Pad Thai with prawn. The waiter queried us if the order was indeed for three persons alone. We nodded in agreement. (Did we order a bit too much?)
For the uninitiated, Mee is the noodles that you get in Malaysia. You could order any of the Mees with a choice between veg, chicken, prawn or mix. I educated myself with the names of the remaining dishes on the menu while we waited for the starters. Moderate AC blew throughout, and it felt cool even at two in the afternoon. Ten minutes later, the waiter arrived with our starters, the Malaysian Chicken Satay. Take a look at those six delectable skewers paired up with peanut sauce.
The skewers felt juicy and satisfying to munch. It had the proper heat on it (unlike many other times where I burnt my tongue with starters). The insides also felt cooked, and the peanut sauce complimented the meat well. The sauce reminded me of the tandoori dip at KFC, but this one had broken peanuts in it too. Those were finely chopped, small like the sugar crystals for tea. There was enough quantity of the dip, and we had some left even after we finished the skewers.
A couple of minutes later, the Mamak Mee Goreng arrived. It came in a platter, and the waiter served it into three of our plates with skill. The brown tint did make the impression of a soy sauce overload. But it tasted great, nevertheless. There were some cubes (or cuboids, instead) that tasted like paneer. Eventually, I got to know they were the tofu. Tofus are made from soy milk, but they still tasted great with all the sauce and spices of the Mee Goreng. The noodles didn’t feel spicy and are a good option if you aren’t into savoury food.
Immediately after the Mee Goreng, the Prawn Pad Thai came along. While it didn’t look too different on the brown shades, it had a few extras on the sides – finely chopped cashews, sugar, crushed chilly and a piece of cut lemon. The noodle had a garnishing of spring onions (yummy!). The noodle strip itself was flat and 2D (the Mee Goreng had a tube shape). Though the menu showed a spicy warning (two red chillies next to the name) for the Pad Thai, it never felt so spicy (sigh). We had some noodles left on the platter, and I helped finish them off like I always do.
The twist is, we still had space left to eat, even after the starters and two helpings of stir-fried noodles. To make up for all the lost spice, we ordered prawn momos – Prawn Har Gao being the fancy name. The waiter explained that there would be three sauces accompanying the dumplings, each having varying spiciness levels. Five minutes later, he came in with a wooden container. Inside it was the dumplings laid out on a banana leaf. They looked fresh from all the steam cooking.
The sauces had three different colours, and contrary to what you might think, the light orange one was the tangiest and the dark red, the least. I have this habit of showing off the amount of spice I can consume, so I was munching away the dumplings in the orange chutney sauce. My guess is these chutneys were made from different varieties of chillies, hence the contrasting colours.
Back to the dumplings. They were not too hot on the outside, but the prawn inside was steaming. I opened up to let it cool down for ten seconds before dipping it into the chilli chutney. I haven’t eaten many momos to give an opinion, but this one had the right amount of salt, unlike the usually over-salted ones. The white cover on the momo was soft and tasted plain – compliments well with the chutney.
While the chutney didn’t feel too tangy in combo with the momo, try eating it alone, and you’ll realise steam coming out of your ears. The cold water on the table helped save the day, thankfully. Once the last dumpling was finished, we finally achieved satiety. The bill arrived, and the total was Rs 1580. It was on expected lines; the food tasted magnificent, and the attitude of the waiters was excellent. We paid them a generous tip too for the impeccable service. Good work needs to be appreciated, so we wrote “wonderful experience” on the feedback app on their tablet.
If you love Asian food or are intrigued by their names and want to try some of those, Nasi and Mee is the perfect place to go. Over a thousand reviews and an average of 4.4 stars – What else do you need! Ask in any of your queries, and the waiters over there are more than happy to help you out. The icing on the cake would be the car parking facility, even amongst the busy streets of MG Road. Now speaking of cake, there were desserts on the menu, but we didn’t feel like missing out on the prawn savour. Some other day with the dessert reviews, perhaps!
Summary
Restaurant: Nasi and Mee Asian Canteen, Shenoys, Kochi
Order type: Dine-in
The order: Malaysian Chicken Satay, Chicken Mamak Mee Goreng, Prawn Pad Thai and Prawn Har Gao
Positives: Taste, parking area, ambience and service
Negatives: Quantity – Don’t expect to fill your tummy with 500 rupees.
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