Lifestyle

Let’s do Chinese!

Thursday, September 17th, 2020 00:00 | By
Mild chilli chicken wings. Photo/PD/FAITH KYOUMUKAMA

Having grown up in Shanghai and travelled extensively, Mr Yao decided to make Nairobi his home, where he introduced modern Chinese eating where classic comfort dishes are given a contemporary European flair.

Faith Kyoumukama @martkinel

Let’s do Chinese! These are my friend’s words every time we decide to dine. She loves Chinese and I’m those people who would probably propose to do Indian or Nigerian cuisine.

My relationship with Chinese cuisine has, however, taken an incredible turn and she mentioned it last week. I immediately agreed. 

The restaurant is Mr Yao, at Kenrail towers located in Westlands. It is a chilly day in Nairobi, but you know what that means, you need a hearty meal to deal with the cold weather.

Mr Yao is a modern restaurant with an elegant feel. The neutral hues used and low lifting gives it an intimate feel.

There are overhead lamps on each table, which enables the customers to read the menu and also take pictures, and also allows us to see those we are dining with better.

As a safety measure against coronavirus, guests are required to have a mask and frequently sanitise and a barcode scanner app in one’s phone is a must-have to give you access to the menu and the charges.

This enables you to have access to the menu of dishes they offer and the price too.

There was a menu for the day already set up, but because these names can be rather challenging we still needed a waitress to guide us through and be clear on what we are about to partake.

Chilly goodness

The starters comprise of chicken char siu bao and mild chilli chicken wings. The bao bun is a delicious, warm, fluffy treat of stuffing.

Usually, when compared to its close related cousin, the dumpling, it is a little sweeter.

Stuffed in it, was sweet chicken mince, which lends a surprise taste in your mouth when you bite into it.  The chicken wings were also sweet and a chilly finish taste to it. 

For the main dish, we had a couple of options. This included two options of carbs and protein, noodles rice, spicy beef and chicken and cashew nuts respectively.

The servings were generous, almost enough for five or six people. My friend and I had a couple of servings and there was still much left for approximately four adult servings.

My best combination had to be the chicken and cashew nut with the noodles. The chicken is cut into short chicken strips and stir-fried together with the nuts.

The cashew nuts adds some crunch to the meal. The mix is cooked with onion and red bell pepper, which makes it more filling and wholesome.

I couldn’t have my wine, because of the ban on serving alcoholic drinks, at the moment, but they had great mocktails that were quite refreshing, and when I talk of such, I don’t mean juices, they were fizzy with fruity flavours like strawberry and raspberry and because they were served in wine glasses that did it for me.  

To go to place for a date

After experiencing food coma, I was served dessert, but as always, my taste buds fell into temptation.

Vanilla ice cream with date rolls were beautifully presented and I couldn’t resist. The dates were warm and I loved the variations when you eat the two of them together.

The ice cream was natural and it tastes different, but I figured it’s because it’s freshly made in their kitchen, It’s smooth and not overly gooey. 

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