Forking Tasty

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.

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…

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.

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.

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…