Rocky Singh and Mayur Sharma speak to Naintara Maya Oberoi on going foreign with a new season of Highway on my Plate and launching a new show.
What’s the weirdest thing you have ever eaten?
Mayur: Stinky tofu which is deliberately aged to become really smelly and strong in flavour.
Rocky: Sheep’s eyeballs, fried insects, 100-year-old eggs, snakes, frogs. The weirder it is, the more it calls out to me, which goes a long way in explaining some of the women in my life.
Do you have any superpowers?
Rocky and Mayur: Magical powers, forsooth. We can make food disappear so quick it seems the plate was never full. Oh, and on special occasions (like when we were told we have to pay for all that we ate), we can fly. In our superhero club Mayur is codenamed “The Panda” – he eats, shoots and leaves. Rocky is known as “The Priest”, due to his belief that if god did not want us to eat animals, he wouldn’t have made them out of meat.
Do you cook?
Mayur: In life, there are two kinds of people : those who cook and we who eat. No prizes for guessing which one I belong to. In an emergency I can cook really good mushroom, spinach and cheese omelettes and great bhindi, rajma and rice, but don’t tell anyone!
Rocky: I’m a trained Thai chef, so my Penang curry is to die for. We avoid letting people know that we can cook, as our true passion is eating. We do not want to ruin our reputation, so let’s make this our own little secret . . . shhhh.
Where is India’s best dhaba?
Mayur: Ummiyan Kathiawadi, serving traditional Kathiawad food on NH-8 in Anand, Gujarat, made even their brinjals so tasty I went back for fourths.
Rocky: In terms of an actual roadside dhaba, I think the prize goes to the fantastic Chilika Lake dhaba, which serves the most amazing freshwater crabs, lobster and fish.
What’s your favourite city in the world?
Mayur: I have travelled across more than 60 countries, and my favourite city in the world is Jaisalmer, for that wonderful feeling of having travelled back in time and the stars like dust across the desert sky.
Rocky: Probably the first one to give me the keys to the State Pantry. I love the peace of the forests and the hills, so cities aren’t always my favourite places. Bangalore would be closest to my heart because of the wonderful food culture it has evolved subsequent to its pub culture in the ’90s.
Source : Time Out Mumbai ISSUE 1 Friday, September 03, 2010
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