Forking Tasty

Market Madness

This video captures the extensive stands and stalls that make up the ubber colorful Mysore Market. I spent 2 days in Mysore sucking up the history, landmarks, architecture and food. The market was the best I found in all of India. By day two I had my chai guy, chalk guy and kitchen utensil vendors calling me by name. A good food market is always at the heart of any great town and this definitely exceeded my expectations.

It Was Great…Until The Cops Came

Shanghai is a really REALLY big city. Over 20 million people live here. Some how we managed to find this really small area that has lots of restaurants and cafes. The area is really tight, like ally ways making up a maze. We went to a little sushi restaurant up stairs called Akurah and sat out on a balcony. It was about 10pm and there was hardly anyone around. We ordered a lot of sushi, sashimi and chicken curry. We were having a good time laughing and trying to communicate with the staff until the cops came…

P.I.E. WITH Shaa’ir

When I first met Shaa’ir I was stuffed in the back of a van in India, cars were wizzing by on my right and a gaggle of kids were grouping up on the right. She poked her head in the passenger door to say a quick hello before we headed out to our next video shoot location. Shaa’ir(Monica) is one half of the Mumbai based electro, funk duo Shaa’ir + Func.

A few days later the shoot was completed and Shaa’ir, my video director/producers and I headed out for some Diwali partying.(Func had to run off to a gig in Australia) But, before that we hit some grub. A chinese restaurant in Bandrha would do the trick. Shaa’ir ordered up a bunch of dishes and we all dug in.

Shaa’ir has a beautiful voice and a welcoming energy about her. She has an interesting story in that she grew up in the United States (did her time in NYC) but then moved to Mumbai because she felt the creative energy there was what she needed. Over the few days I hung out with her I could sense these two sides to her. On October 25th I realized why I had such a strong feeling of her character so quickly. We both celebrate that day as our day of birth. Although almost a decade apart scorpios know scorpios. Rather than me try and explain all this more, here is the final documentary we were filming of both Shaa’ir + Func. It will fill in their story much better than I could.

What we ate:

Spicy prawns
Chili chicken
Vegetable fried rice
Chicken kebabs
Fried Cabbage

The Filthy Cook Shack

On the tails of my post from yesterday comes this meal I ate my second day in Cochin. I can safely say this is where I strayed from the path. This was the biggest food risk I had taken up to this point on the trip BUT it had to be done. Because Cochin is a big fishing and trading port, they have a lot of fresh fish on hand. Being the industrious and persistent Indians that they are, the locals set up a series of make shift kitchens along the side of one of the roads near the fish market. The deal is this…

Kerela Kitchen

After Goa I headed down to Kerela. Cochin to be exact.Yes, yes, where I made the chai. But before I made that Chai I got into some real cooking with those two chefs. The night I arrived in Cochin I was picked up by Babu, a driver sent for me, and brought to the homestay I was sleeping at for the next 2 days. By the time I arrived it was late but I was hungry. Leslie, the homestay owner, told me the guys were in the kitchen and I should head down once settled into my room.

A few minutes later I headed down the steps and out through the front sitting area to the kitchen/restaurant. I sat at one of the tables and waited for one of the chef’s. I was the only person around and so I asked if I could come into the kitchen and watch them cook. They saw no problem with this and so the two of us headed back into the kitchen so I could see what was going on. The video above shows, in detail, my appetizer and kingfish appetizer being created. What I stripped out of this video was the original audio. The jumpcuts required this but during almost the entire entree preparation I was engaged in a conversation about marriage. I was being questioned about why I got divorced, how i got divorced and why I was not married again. In India, getting married is a big deal that ALWAYS happens. Being 35 and NOT married is a mystery and intrigue to most. Perhaps one day I will post the audio because it contains some interesting nuggets of perspective from the two young chefs questioning me. For now we can just leave it alone by saying, if they had it their way I would be getting married again very soon.

Goan to the Spice Farm

One day while in Goa I hired a driver to take me inland to a town called Ponda. Just outside Ponda are two huge spice farms. I visited one and here is what went down.

The Best Day at the Best Price

This is definitely in my top 3 days on a cruise ship. It is my first time in Vietnam and we port in Nha Trang. We really didn’t know what to do but we had a map and some possibilities. One of the things on the list was to go to a day spa. When we left the ship we got bombarded by guys that wanted to be our taxi. We finally settled with a guy for $10 to take us to the spa. Some how he took us to the 2nd thing we wanted to do which was to go see these towers that were built in the 7th century…

Dewali Celebration

I suppose this is something like when my Jewish friends eat Chinese food on Christmas day. Diwali is the Indian-Christmas-like-New-years celebration in which on the first 3 nights everyone plays with firecrackers from dusk ’till 1am. And, I mean non-stop. 4 year olds lighting off cherry bombs. 15 year olds setting off 190 books of firecrackers in the middle of a busy parking lot. No rules and no reaction from the locals. It IS the way it IS. Happy Dewali is all I can say.

To celebrate I was headed up to…

Chai Guy

I have been working hard to organize all of the India goodness. I am in a bit of withdrawal from some of my new India finds and habits. I thought I would start the Indian malay of tasty with this “How to” video on one of my favorite new vices, Indian Masala Tea. This could have replaced coffee for me all together had I never left Indian. It is delicious day or night and I would say I consumed a good 100 of them in my 3 weeks.

This video was shot in the kitchen of a Homestay I visited in the town of Cochin, Kerela. I made quick friends with the kitchen staff and they allowed me in to get a little messy with them.

M.I.A.J.

I have been computer-less for the last 2 weeks. I have been all over Southern India with a backpack, a camera and a big appetite. Tonight, I returned to Mumbai for a 12 hour stop over before heading back to NYC via London. There is a ton to report on but it is going to take a few days for me to sort through all the curry, flat breads, chai’s and places. Over the next couple weeks, I will share with you what was certainly one of the most interesting food adventures of my life.

To end the trip in true Anello style, I headed to one last street cart for killer kebabs. Straight off the plane from Bangalore, I bypassed my Mumbai hotel and headed for Bademiya. I pushed to the front, ordered up some mutton, chicken tikka and chicken leg kebabs. Minutes later I was rewarded for my aggressiveness with three foil wrapped packs of goodness. I wacked them down right on the street. Delicious.

More India to come. It gets hairy, I promise. But, not how you think.