Fat is where its at

There is a fat person lurking in us all and when you eat on the highway like we do, that fat person bursts out with abandon. Between the two of us (Rocky and Mayur) we have gained 45 pounds or 20 kilos since we started shooting for ‘Highway on My Plate’.

I am sure our regular viewers would have noticed this but I must say it is a job hazard and ‘OH’ what a hazard it is. I have found great joy in the search, pursuit and single-minded demolition of the most famous foods of this country.
Believe it or not, we sometimes eat for the camera, get done with it and then eat for ourselves again.

Any sane person will tell you that if you eat 2 breakfasts, 2 lunches and 2-3 dinners you are bound to have side effects. The side effects of our eating are becoming more and more apparent on our ‘sides’.

The pluses are that we do fill out the screen even more and there’s over 200 kilos of anchor for you in every show now. Can we sustain it …watch us try.

While people are switching to healthy wholesome foods across the world Mayur and I have had the privilege of eating what can only be described as traditional DESI food. And I must point out here that no DESI food can ever be complete without DESI ghee.

In fact, the general approach is that if you are a dhaba owner and you care about your clients you will do your utmost to pump them full of DESI ghee till their arteries scream out in congested anguish.

I think that’s a good thing. Some people say, “You are what you eat” and therefore I studiously avoid fruits, nuts and vegetables. Some people also have a problem with eating all kinds of meat well to them I say that I have not fought my way to the top of the food chain to be vegetarian.
The world has no control on what comes out of peoples mouths so lets get a little relaxed on what people put in them.

We have eaten arguably and we Indians live by that word – arguably (arguably) the tastiest food in the country across almost all the states ( North East get ready, we will be there soon) and oh what a ride it has been.

The one conclusion I can make, and a lot of you may support it, is that food tastes best when deep fried in DESI ghee. There, I said it. I can hear the gasps but hey, lets face it, food does taste better with ghee.

The rotis are a lot tastier when they are ‘chopadoed’ with ghee. Dals are better with a dollop of ghee in them, sweets (mithais) taste best when prepared with ghee etc. etc. etc.

You get the picture. I for one have not been man enough to resist any of the food and neither do I intend to. Having been an established foodie all my life where else do I get a chance to express my love for food better than this?

I dedicate this space to those hard-working dhaba wallahs out there. They are the last bastions for some of the traditional food in our country. They uphold a proud heritage of what is the richest diversity of food any country can offer on this planet.

There are recipes that are now the proud and secret reserve of a single family (as in Tunda kebabs Lucknow, Karims Delhi, Sandra Rajasthan etc.) and are lost to the common man without people of those families.

You would be surprised how many famous dhaba owners go the extra mile to get a single ingredient.
You would be amazed at how unforgiving some of them are when it comes to making a single mistake in the preparation of their food and you would be surprised at the back-breaking work some of them put in to dish out those amazing foods at the same high standards day after day.

Then there are the indifferent dhabas along highways that just don’t care. My advice – If you are on the highway, do a bit of research on the food stops in between. Seek out the special dhabas and when you are there eat like there’s no tomorrow!

For the evolution of man is heading from the apes to humanoids to homo sapiens and now to fat homo sapiens. We were rarer earlier and are now becoming more common. It is our time. Be evolved, get fat ? and above all ENJOY and Bon Appétit.