Forking Tasty

Italian Food In China…Never Again!

In Sanya China our goal was to hit the beach for a little while. We got in a cab and the cabby was supposed to take us to a close beach. The cabby kept driving and driving and driving. We must have passed about 4 beaches and we still were not where he was thinking of taking us. Finally we had him just pull over and we walked across the street from a bunch of hotels and plopped down on the beach. There was a little Tiki restaurant on the beach and it was the only thing around that was close that had food. This Tiki restaurant mainly sold Italian food. Italian food is the last thing I wanted on the beach let alone having Italian food in China. I should have known this was a sign of a crappy meal. The menu was interesting. It let me pick the noodle and the sauce for my pasta. I decided on a gnocchi Carbanara. Sounded great when I order it….then it came…

The Marble Mountains of Da Nang

Vietnam is known for it’s cheap eats but we decided to go to a resort where it is not so cheap. During the day we hiked into the marble mountains. They are quit amazing to look at. They just jet out from the ground from out of nowhere. They are not your typical looking mountains. Oh yeah, and they are marble. There are marble shops all around the mountains with some beautiful stuff. When you hike up the mountains there are caves you can go into and find temples. One of the caves was bombed in WWII and left big holes at the top of the cave where light shines as beams into the cave. It’s really cool and beautiful.

My Latest Fast Food Burger

It’s been a while since I had a fast food burger. I can’t even remember the last one I ate. In Hong Kong I only had a couple hours to go out and see the city before I had to be back on the ship. With not much knowledge of Hong Kong I ventured into the city to wonder around. Being in a huge city with multicultures made me feel like I was at home in New York with a Chinese spin to it. I was impressed with the city but like I said I only have a couple hours.

India Speed Round

I have finally caught up on all the India posts. Just in time too, I have so much to share from my Santa Barbera and Austin trips. To close off India I played a sort of “blank” meal game. The four stories below are the outcome of the questions I asked myself about eating in India. I think these questions cover the spiritual, fearful, gastronomical and monumental aspects of my journey.

I asked myself these four questions. I hope you all enjoyed the India fun. Next time you take a trip perhaps you can ask yourself these four questions and let me know your answers. I’d love to hear from you.

1. What’s the memorable meal you had?
2. What’s the calmest meal you had?
3. What’s the riskiest meal you had?
4. What’s the best meal you had?

Ohh…btw… The above pic is of my breakfast teh morning I woke up in Munnar. Fresh idlis with a curry sauce and a coconut chutney. Par for the course by day 12 in India.

Calmest Meal in India

People say India is completely crazy and that it fries your nerves. They are right to an extent. As a New yorker and avid traveler i think I was able to deal with the constant horns, movement, shuffling of people, spitting, cow crossing and blazing sun. But from time to time even I needed a refuge…

Riskiest Meal in India

Munnar is a town that sits high in the mountains surrounded by tea plantations. It had taken me 6 hours to reach it by car. In those 6 hours I had been to an elephant bath, waterfalls and a spice farm. Now I was about to roll the dice…

Milestone Meal in India

You only turn 35 once, so I decided to do it in a palace. I woke up on my 35th birthday on a rice boat in Kerela. By dinner time I had finished a 1 hour boat ride, 2 hour car ride, 1 hour flight and another 4 hour drive to get myself to Mysore. Mysore is in Karnataka and just happens to be Preethi’s Dad’s home town. I came to Mysore mostly because of the market but this added bit of legacy made it even more special…

Best Meal In India

Choosing one “best” meal is very tough, as you could imagine. As we always say on this blog, meals are just as much about where you are and who you’re with than what you are eating. For this post I am going to suppress that thinking just a touch and focus heavily on the food.

Needless to say I ate a lot in India. But, as I recounted the many meals I consumed, one stood out among the rest. Well, three stood out actually. Did you really think I was going to be able to choose just one? My saving grace is…

Round & Round, Round you go

Rotating Restaurant in the Pearl Building, Shanghai from Anthony Anello on Vimeo.

The Pearl Building in Shanghai is a really cool site. It is manly used as a TV/Radio station and tower. That occupies the 1st main pearl. They have a see through floor, a post office and a revolving restaurant in the second pearl. Where the tourists go. The see through floor was really cool. It was like you were walking on air. We were very hungry and decided to stay high up in the sky and eat at the revolving Chinese buffet. It was fun and the view was nice even with the smog/pollution. The food was better. Lots of things to choose from (a.k.a. buffet). At one point I missed an entire section of the buffet. However, you know me, when I found it I tasted each and every plate. It was a fun experience.

P.I.E. WITH Mike and Mark

It had been a long two months leading up to this meal. Mike and Mark were instrumental in helping me pull off the yodel studio project. They were even more valuable on the ground with me in Mumbai. We had finally just finished the whole project and caught our breath and it was time to celebrate. For our celebratory meal we headed down to Leopold’s in Colaba for a good ex-Pat Indian meal.

Mike is a SO CAL guy, bringing that calm and chill behavior to the crazy world of Mumbai. Mark is a NO CAL guy, also a calm person, but in a different way than SO CAL. If you have ever lived in California you know the difference. My relationship with these guys has only been a short 2 months but in that time we talked a lot about the project details. Mark and Mike thanks for all the help with the studio. Ohh, and Mark, I will be out to take you up on that kayak offer one day.

What we ate:

Chicken Tikka Masala
Tandoori chicken
Lamb Rogan Josh
Garlic naan
Plain Naan