How far will you go for food?

 

From the dhabas on Grand Trunk Road to the homely feasts of tribal Nagaland, local food destinations are what get Rocky and Mayur salivating. Two of Indian television’s most popular hosts talk to Healthntrends about their experiences eating on the road.

How did you know each other before Highway On My Plate?
Rocky: We have been neighbours and friends since 1976—yes, despite our youthful good looks, we are that old. We continue to stay five houses away from each other.

You travel for about five months in a year for your shows. Do you ever get jaded or homesick?
Mayur: If we get tired of travel for work, we take a break and travel for pleasure. We do this because we love it. We have wheels on our feet and for us, even three to four days at home is too much time spent away from an open road.

What constitutes comfort food?
Rocky: Bhindi, chicken curry, rajma chawal and lots of green chillies.
Mayur: Dal chawal, homemade panjiri (a sweet made from wheat and ghee) and lots of healthy vegetable juices and soups for dinner.

What is the most bizarre thing you’ve ever eaten?
Rocky: From ant chutneys in Chhattisgarh to fermented soy bean (akhuni) in Nagaland, we’ve tried it all. But the variety of live insects we ate with the Air Force boys on the shoot we did with them for the Jungle Snow Survival School were definitely the most offbeat.
What we found: fresh grasshoppers without their heads, wings and legs are the tastiest insects. We still pop the odd one now and then just for the fresh taste.

If you could ban one food, what would it be and why?
Mayur: As far as food goes, the more the merrier. If we had to ban anything, we would ban intolerance towards any kind of food. Eat and let eat. Limitation on foods on the basis of religion, community or geography is just wrong. We are a big country and we eat a variety of things. Let’s just keep it that way. I have all respect for the growing trend
of vegetarianism, but please be tolerant with your meat-eating friends.

Can you tell us about FoodMad Season 2?
We wanted to make a show on the places where Indians can satisfy specific food cravings and that’s the inspiration for FoodMad. We travel across the country looking for things that food dreams are made of.