Forking Tasty

Big Food, Small Price – China

Lunch in Dalian China from Anthony Anello on Vimeo.

My first time in China and we sailed to Dalian. This is one of the larger cities in China. It is modern, but also has the local down an ally markets. There was a lot of food to try in the markets but some things were so dirty that I didn’t have the stomach to try it. Lot’s of dust and flies all over the food. I did want to go into a traditional Chinese restaurant and have some lunch and that is just want my friends and I did. Enjoy the video.

Mumbai-Back and Bold

I’m leaving Mumbai today. I’ll say this, I don’t think I won but I certainly evened the score. Sometimes in order to eat a place you have to get dirty first. Mumbai is one of those places where you don’t really know what to eat unless you get out there and see what is going on. Luckily I did a lot f that.

NOTE: This post is not for the faint of heart and has just as much to do about experience as it dos food. Click play knowing this.

Here is the full Mumbai photo set.

McDesgusting

I had no choice during my event build but to eat McDonald’s. Normally I am not a McD’s fan but in India the cow is sacred and so the international icon does not have a Big Mac. (two all beef patties special sauce….you get me, right?) What do they have instead? Ohh, they have the chicken maharaja mac. This is not quite chicken and not quite a “mac”…

Butter Bag

I am not sure if I should be excited or disgusted by this. MMMMMM for the contents as long as the packaging hold up on my long hot bicycle ride home. A pin hole in this bag can be a day changer.

Finally, Local India is Mine

I’m back in India if you have not been keeping up. This time I am determined to out score this country. I am starting in Mumbai because of my latest Yahoo! project.It was insane pulling of this project in India. Things do not work the way they do in the states EVER but India is a special exception. The project went off fantastically but not without a few grey hairs and a bunch of screaming by me. Yes, screaming. Seems to be the way you get Indians in Mumbai to listen to you.

In between yelling and sweating I managed to score a crew meal backstage. Masala chicken with rice and some chutney was the standard issue lunch today. I sat amongst the guys scooping up my grub the same way they were. I savored every last bite, the same way they did. And, I smiled when done, the same way they did.

A few moments later we were back at work. Me yelling at them and them NOT listening to me. Ahh India, I guess we are just going to have to take this one step at a time.

P.I.E. WITH Ayazed

Ayazed was my driver today. He quickly turned into my tour guide and then my lunch partner. He is 39 and dyes his hair black. Normally it would be grey. An early confession from Ayazed. As we traveled from the flower market to the Thief market and then onto Crawford market our chat continued to reveal history about my new friend.

He spent 7 years in Saudi Arabi, speaks Arabic, has 2 kids and held a variety of jobs before becoming a chauffeur 12 years ago. Considering his age he certainly has accomplished a lot in his short years here. We moved the client/driver relationship into a friendship when we sat down together at Noorani and got our fingers dirty with some naan.

Thanks Ayazed for a great day around Mumbai and for trusting in me enough to share your personal stories.

What we ate

mutton afghani
chicken dopiaja
butter naan

P.I.E. WITH Santosh and Shital

I met Santosh and Shital at Cafe Madras in Mumbai. Madras is a very old restaurant and the protocol is that you sit where there is an empty seat. They sat across from me and we got to talking. Turns out they just returned from Goa and I was heading there in a few days. After a little small talk we got right down to recommendations for food and hotels in Goa. They even hooked me up with a guide. After that Shital schooled me in masala chai vs coffee. Thanks for all the info guys. It helped a ton.

What we ate

mysore masala dosa
coffee
meduoodar

Final Score: India 1 – Jason 0

Wow, what a tough country. I am humbled. Although the above video shows great food and a seemingly nice slice of India there is much more to the story than that. I think of myself as a good traveller and a great eater, but India knocked me back. I went into this trip with the idea that I was going to eat and explore the deepest corners of Mumbai. My friends at home, who have been to India, warned me about the shocking contrast I would find. They had explained that the food, particularly street food, was dangerous and WILL get me sick. I heard their plea but pushed it as far back in my mind as I could. Through out this post I will show pictures that are appropriate for the words you are reading but not so appropriate for a food blog. Some are quite disturbing so please, if you choose to read on understand that this post is very different from the usual.

Breaking Breakfast

It’s no doubt to anyone who has been following this last week that I love the breakfast at the hotel. In four days I have had four different breakfasts from the same buffett. All anchored with my delicious American coffee, I dove deep into Indian breakfast favorites, savored the fresh fruit bar, pounced on the made-to-order-omelette station and supplemented with everything from a banana smoothy to a hard boiled egg. But my all time favorite was a simple treat that anchored my stay in Mumbai…

Travel Beers and an Indian Hero

On our final night we opted to sit out in the humid air by the pool. I decided to knock back a few cold ones to accent the successful business trip. We had accomplished a ton in the 4 short days and it was worth a mini celebration. My first was in honor of our host country.

Second, I opted to…