Forking Tasty

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

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

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…

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…

30 Minutes or Less around the world

I am not proud to say it but, I ate Domino’s Pizza for lunch. Wait….Let me explain. I was spending the day at the Yahoo! Mumbai offices working with the team to nail down all the details of the October project. Morning turned to afternoon and the hunger struck. The work wasn’t done and a working lunch was in order. Unfortunately Indians are obsessed with western culture and their “fast food’ is McDonald’s and Domino’s. Besides the obvious travesty of me having pizza in India, I had to really push myself through some more deep rooted issues…