Former IAS officer turns his gastronomic passions into a restaurant in Kochi

Thiruvananthapuram: Ali Asgar Pasha now travels an untrodden path for a former IAS officer, running a restaurant that serves authentic Kerala-style lunch in Kochi.

‘Mee Mee’ has become a regular haunt for many ardent customers seven days a week since it opened four months ago, The Indian Express reported.  

“Mee mee” is a common idiom of children in Kerala to refer to fish (meen, in Malayalam).

Retired as secretary of the Kerala government’s Food and Civil Supplies department in 2023, Ali Asgar Pasha did not have to dwell much on what next.

At around 7 am every day you will find him picking out vegetables at wholesale vegetable market in Kochi’s Nettoor area.

Next you will see him rushing to the Kalamukku fishing harbour in Vypeen to buy fresh fish.

At Mee Mee he works on meat and fish, getting ready curries for his customers.

“Cooking has been my passion during my civil service days. While in service, I used to cook food at home and serve it to my colleagues. All of them, including seniors, appreciated my culinary skills,” he was quoted as saying.

Pasha added: “Before retirement in July 2023 as the Kerala government’s Secretary of Food and Civil Supplies, I had taken the decision to launch a restaurant. My intention is not to make profit, I want to give quality food to people at a reasonable price.”

Pasha, a 2004-batch officer, decided to pursue his culinary passion and rented a house to start Mee Mee at Vallarpadam area of Kochi serving a traditional Kerala menu for lunch, opening at 12.30 pm and closes at 3 pm.

“No colours are added to the food, and there is no adulteration of any sort. Most of the vegetables are sourced from farmers, but we also depend on the market for some items. The fish comes from the Chinese fishing nets set up near Kochi, and everything is cooked in coconut oil bought from Alappuzha’s Onattukara Coconut Producer Company, which uses desiccated coconut that doesn’t contain sulphur,” he was quoted as saying.

Just a couple of months into it, he found a working partner in Sasha Bensy, who retired as HR head of Southeast Asia for the Heineken beer company.

Bensy, who lives not far away from the eatery, came for lunch one day ‘Now, she also cooks an item,’ Pasha said.