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. I honestly had no clue what I was eating. The gnocchi was so large and it was totally a moosh festival. It was horrible and I ended up having to share the pizza my friend ordered which was worse than a frozen pizza. The only thing that was nice was the blue drink and the beach was right there. Ugh, Italian in china… never again. To make matters worse, the cab driver back to the ship kept putting his hand on my leg. The cabby kept laughing and I was also at first but after 4-5 times I had enough. Then he wanted my sunglasses and kept asking me for them. Getting back to the ship never felt so good.

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. After climbing thought the caves and reaching the top we came down to our cabby who was waiting for us, and he took us to the Furama Resort on China Beach. We ran out to the big waves and had some fun in the water. The restaurant was in the resort that over looked there beautiful pool and the beach. We got a few drinks and some lunch there. Unfortunately, it was a very Americanized menu. The food was good but I was looking forward to something authentic. The highlight of the day was seeing the marble mountains and hiking through the caves. For more pictures of Da Nang click here.

Burger

Fish Sandwich

Steak and Cheese

The Crew

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.

Our port leaves us in a mall and as soon as you walk off the ship, to the left there was my fast food burger joint called Freshness Burger. They looked pretty good and had to give it a try. Freshness Burger is a Japanese Fast food chain with over 250 stores. This burger came with the works and waffle fries to boot. Big plus there! They also have these lounge chairs to sit in and eat. Kind of like a loungey coffee shop. I was fulfilled but next time in Hong Kong I need to have more time and I have to hit a Chinese restaurant.

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.

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. After a long morning exploring Jewtown in Cochin I poked my way around the side streets looking for a spot for lunch. I happened along Caza Maria, which was noted in my guide book, and I started up the long set of stairs up to the restaurant. Once upstairs the corridor opened up into a large room with large, arched, glassless, windows along the wall that looked out onto the street. I was seated at a table on the opposite wall where the sound of the street was muffled into background music. Three giant fans blew around the warm, think air in the room creating just enough breeze to be cooled. I browsed the menu that had been placed in front of me with little regard for time. After the waiters third attempt to take my order I had finally decided.

I started with the yogurt drink pictured at the top. It was made with cucumber and sea salt. It was very fresh, cold and tasty. This chilled me out even more both mentally and physically.

Next up was this fish curry and coconut rice. Again they used kingfish, an apparent staple in Cochin. Both were good.

They were not great and not bad but with my current mind set and ultra-relaxed mode the food was perfect. I sat nibbling for at least an hour. My mind drifted in and out of thoughts from what I did yesterday to the paint color on the wall to what would my next meal be.

Once I finished the plates the waiter removed them leaving me with an empty table in an empty restaurant. I ordered a chai and sauntered over to one of the windows to look down at the street happenings.

I stood in that window sipping my tea for another hour just watching the comings and goings of Cochin. To say I was relaxed at this point would be an understatement. I had managed to put myself in a near sleep state by finding this gem of a spot perched up above the chaos. Resisting the need to leave and the inevitable end of my calm I lingered as long as I could with out becoming a nuisance to the staff, who by the way had cleaned up the restaurant and were relaxing in the living room in the adjoining room. Finally I convinced myself if I didn’t leave now I would have to have dinner in this place and with that I slipped back into the corridor, down the steps and back out on to the busy, hot street. I managed to keep my calm for a while after rejoining the hustle but eventually lost it when a tuk tuk and dump truck almost collided behind me avoiding a large white bull that had wandered into the narrow Cochin streets. Nothing lasts forever, right?

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.

My driver and I we hungry and we pulled off the road to get some food. Finding a parking spot in the bustling town we walked towards a series of restaurants. My driver signaled to the restaurant I was supposed to eat at. The safe restaurant. The tourist restaurant. The clean restaurant. The non-local restaurant. The in-authentic restaurant. I started towards it as my driver headed in the opposite direction towards “his” restaurant. I stopped in my tracks spun around and ran after him. I explained I wanted to eat with him. I wanted to eat where he ate. He nodded and the two of us walked another 20 feet into a tiny little roadside joint. As I entered the packed restaurant of ALL Indian men looked up at me. We found our way to a couple open seats shoulder to shoulder with other men already eating. My driver signaled to the waiter and he ran off. I looked around and realized everyone was eating the same thing. Just as I finished this analysis the waiter was back with the same large silver tray I had just finished noticing in front of everyone else.

Inside the tray was a huge scoop of rice and 9 small stainless steel cups each containing a different sauce. I watched my driver to see what to do next. He removed each cup and placed them neatly around the outer rim of the circular tray. I mimicked him. Next he rolled up his sleeve on his right hand. Again, I did the same. Next the waiter came back carrying a large silver bucket with a giant ladle in it. Re extracted some orange, spicy liquid from the bucket and poured it on both of our rice mounds. My driver put his right hand straight into the rice and started shoveling it into his mouth. I hesitated for a second and then dove right in myself. i didn’t know exactly what I was about to eat but at this point I knew there was no turning back.

A minute later the waiter brought a deep fried fish about 6 inches long and placed it next to me. My driver smiled at me trying to let me know that he ordered that for me special. We sat in silence pouring sauce, hand mixing it into the rice and shoveling it into our mouths for about 20 minutes. As I ate I wondered with every sample of new sauce if it would be my demise. Rule number one, was NOT to eat any sauce that is at room temperature. It is these sauces that get people sick. But, what was I to do? I refused to eat where my driver dropped me. I was sitting 10 people deep at a table of Indians with a giant tray of rice and sauce in front of me. The whole restaurant was watching me. And, it smelled delicious.

Having finished rolling the dice we climbed back into the car and headed for top station. Top station is the peak where the state of Kerela (which I was currently in) and Tamil Nadu meet and it was another 2 hour drive from Munnar. The whole trip through the beautiful tea plantations, wild elephant spottings and monkey encounters I was hoping my stomach was not going to punish me for eating “off the reservation”. Let’s just say the bathroom options were rudimentary…..and by that I mean non-existant.

2 hours later I reached the peak and was rewarded with an amazing view and a settled stomach.

The rest of the evening and the next day was more of the same. By the time I hit the 24 hour post meal mark I new I was in the clear. With a subconscious sigh of relief I boarded a rice boat to start the next eating adventure of the trip.

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.

I checked into my palace, aka The Green Hotel, and realized I was very hungry. After I dropped my bags I headed out to the great lawn besides the palace. It was set with large lawn chairs around tables for dinner guests. After my last 6 days of fish and seafood I was ready for some chicken or lamb. As I perused the restaurant I saw a ton of delicious dishes. Preethi had told me that a Mysore specialty was marasa which is a cold coconut rice. Not seeing it on the menu I asked the waiter if he could make it and he easily agreed. To accompany the rice I ordered Mutton Tikka Masala and a couple naan breads to dip in the sauce. (a standard by this point in the trip).

As I waited for my dinner I sat reflecting on my last 34 years of life. I always had this little slogan that life starts at 35. It was a bit of a joke and a bit serious at the same time. The theory was that before you turn 35 you don’t yet know what you want, nor do you have the connections or finances to get yourself there. Gazing at my palace glowing in the background I was content that I had achieved all three of these things and could now jump feet first into the deep end of life (Not that I wasn’t swimming in the deep end up to this point in my life. Now it is just a different pool)

My daydream was broken by my waiter who was not carrying my dinner. He was carrying a large piece of chocolate cake with a single, lit candle on it (pictured above). He was accompanied by the restaurant manager. When I checked into the hotel one of the questions I had to answer on the registration form was “date or birth”. From this the hotel staff scrambled to sprinkle rose pedals on my bed and placed a fruit plate in my room before I had arrived there. The message was obviously passed to the restaurant and manifested itself in this piece of chocolate cake. The manager welcomed me, wished me a happy birthday and then began to sing a very off key version of traditional american song.

I realized I would be eating dinner in reverse tonight starting with dessert. I made a wish, blew out the candle and dug in. It was a very American piece of cake to my surprise. Dense, chocolaty and rich. I barely finished the cake when my food arrived.

The marasa was delicious. It had a thick and creamy texture. The fact that it was served chilled added another interesting dimension to the dish. Next I dug into the mutton. A slow cooked bit of lamb swimming in a delicious tikka masala sauce. I spent the next 30 minutes nibbling and dipping on my birthday feast savoring every bite. As I cleaned the plates I leaned back in my over sized chair with the last of my kingfisher beer in my hand and peeked up to the sky. Completely satiated I though to myself, “Now that is the way to start life.”

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 that the three meals come from the same restaurant. I was in the town of Palolem in Goa. A few of my friends had told me to seek out a fish restaurant on the beach. After asking around a bit I was directed several times to Dropadi, a sand floored, thatched roof, open air restaurant abutting the ocean that keeps a huge chalkboard of daily specials as its centerpiece. The big board, as I had come to know it, was the only thing I needed to read when I sat down at a table. The regular menu seems superfluous after you read the first 5 lines of the 25 line specials board. The food here is so damn tasty and fresh that I ate here all three nights I was in Palolem.

Night 1
I started out with a large, ice cold kingfisher beer as I bellied up to the outer bar of the restaurant. The bar looks right out onto the beach and straight into the ocean. A great place to watch the sunset and fill your belly as well as watch the locals and tourists interact. The first item ordered off the board were fish papeds. Papeds are just like pappedam, the flat and crunch indian bread, only they roll and stuff them before frying them. There was a list of 5 types. I ordered the fish. I didn’t care to know what type of fish because everything at Dropadi comes out of the ocean only hours before. With a dip in the hot sauce the papeds were the perfect compliment to my cold beer.

Next I ordered some tandoori tiger prawns. These you can order by the piece. I disobeyed my stomach and held my self at two. The fish was super fresh and the spices were perfectly fused to them from the wet heat in the tandoor.

Next up was tikka masala red snapper(pictured at top). I love red snapper. Maybe my favorite fish. Choosing something else was not really an option after my eyes saw that on the specials board. The snapper was super moist and meaty. I have never had such a thick, meaty piece of snapper. I was looking for bones in disbelief because of the thickness of the pieces. None to be found. Again the tikka masala spices were perfectly graphed to the fish creating mouth watering bites every single time. My taste buds were on over load instantly and consistently until every last piece of fish was in my belly. I augmented this course with a fresh naan that I would use to occasionally wrap around a piece of fish and soak up any spices that had fallen to the plate.

Night 2
Sitting in the same spot as I did the night before I ordered the crab soup off the big board and a kingfisher to accompany it.

Up next was a mountain of mixed fish tikka masala. I know what you are thinking, “Isn’t that the same thing you had the night before? Why would you do that?” Well, I’ll tell you. First, the night before was so damn good, how could I go wrong. Second, I wanted to give the tikka masala preparation a second try and see if it measured up or was just a fluke of super tasty goodness. Third, when you really get down to it the spices in india are very similar. When you add in the tandoor oven, things start tasting even more similar. So the real hero in some dishes is the bulk. In this case the fish. As I said, the fish comes straight out of the sea hours before so trying the mixed tikka would get me a nice cross section of the daily catch.

On the above plate I had prawns, squid, octopus, mussels, clams, snapper and some kingfish. I opted for rice instead of a flat bread this time because, as I was informed by a semi local, southern indians eat rice not bread.

After leaving the restaurant satiated yet again, I decided to stop by the liquor shop to try the local spirit fenny. Fenny is a high octane, cashew schnapps like booze. You can drink it or remove paint with it, your choice. Not for the faint of heart.

Night 3
On my third night I needed a long meal. I had spent all day traveling and exploring the spice farm and I was ready to relax and let me mind drift off. Once again I found a spot at the beach bar section of Dropadi and ordered a cold one. This time a Kings. The beer arrived just in time for a beautiful sunset.

First up tonight was another order of papeds. This time shrimp papeds. Delicious again. The wrap was a little chewier this time, which I liked a lot.

The main course this evening would be curry crab. I had been waiting for the last 2 nights to get some of this fresh crab but they had either run out of crab or only had giant options left in the bucket. I could have made friends but with the way I eat I figured that might turn ugly. After I ordered one of the waiters brought a box to my table. I peeked inside and saw three crabs of various sizes, their claws bound to their bodies with twine. He instructed me to pick one. I choose a bright blue medium sized one. The waiter scurried off to introduce him to the pan.

Before I knew it the waiter was back with the giant plate of curry crab above. The crab was semi cleaned and cracked so I knew I would be getting dirty. Having anticipated this I ordered three naan breads, plenty to dip, wipe and soak up all that delicious curry.

I dug right in attacking the crab with warrior like intensity. I became so involved in my task of extracting pieces of meat from the hard, blue, curry covered shells that I paid little attention to my surroundings. Crack, pull, dip, bite, swallow, repeat. I continued my frenzy of crab and naan eating until my plate looked like this.

I had been so consumed that I failed to realized that I created a bit of a scene with the way I attacked my plate. A good portion of the restaurant was looking over at me. I could only imagine what they were thinking. My guess was they had never scene such a frenzy so I leaned back and made eye contact with the nearest, staring patron and said, “That was really good” To bring some class back to myself I ordered a chai tea and sat quietly sipping until most of the restaurant had left. This new friend had landed next to me for company as I sipped since all my onlooking friends had left.

I still don’t know what kind of insect he was but he was highly intelligent. You can tell by the size of his head. No much of a conversationalist though. I enjoyed the company none the less.

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.

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