EPICUREAN ADVENTURES OF THE GOURMET KING

A heady combination of sensualist and gourmand adventurism, Rocky Singh is a veritable bundle of good cheer and he believes in living life immensely well. Co-hosting the NDTV Good Times Food Travel Show “Highway On My Plate with his partner, Mayur Sharma, the foodie anchor is already burning the midnight oil with his third book on the greatest passion of all Indians: Food. The show meanwhile has completed a record 230 episodes shot during travels of over 200,000 kms on the highways of India.

Rocky in his professional avatar has worked with British Airways and KLM. Though nowadays it is sports like river rafting, trekking, scuba diving, hockey, soccer & golf that keep him busy. That is when he in playing hubby to the gorgeous missus Rupali, a fashion designer. The couple call living in Delhi ‘an exacting pleasure’, with 2 beautiful kids, a complete family in tow.

Rewind to 20 years and Rocky relives a strange occurrence with the occult, one that turned his interest in the paranormal pretty deep. Researching high & low for evidence of life beyond the living real world, he and Mayur decided to star & direct in the TV series: India’s Most Haunted, changing the way the spirit world was projected, with a series of freaky, fear induced stories. The show went on to be one of a kind, with shoots in cursed houses & eerie locales.

From unreal fear to real bravado, the duo went on to capture the might and resilience of the armed forces on the show Jai Hind. Many a laughs were garnered while watching insane antics of the actors walking dripping wet on a foot wide plank, crawling upside down along a rope and then dropping into a tank of water, 50 feet below. It was then that they got into their first love, food with their hugely successful show Highway On My Plate.

Taking it many leagues up, Rocky & Mayur are now going viral making videos of cleverly devised lists of marvelous food pit stops going across India, under the tag India’s Best Restaurants on their YouTube channel Rockyandmayur. The duo have travelled to locations suggested by their fans, traversing the trucking routes providing state wise food guides by mapping the dhabas, diners and cafés, sampling dishes that are mouth watering and delectable and giving more meat to the avid foodaholic to digest.

Rocky relives his obsession with Bengali cuisine, as he & Mayur sample delicacies like mochar ghanto (banana flower cooked with mustard), Daab Chinguri, Maccher Jhol in Kolkata’s New Market. Lining their hungry bellies with alu poshto, begun bhaaja, bhaapa maachh, juicy mutton kaathi rolls at Nizam’s, luchi alu, jhaal moori, puchkas, the food lovers have experienced ecstasy in gourmand heaven.

Having devoured freshly cooked Nolen Gurer Sondesh, a milky sweet meat delight, says Rocky…’I would give my eye teeth to be in Kolkata just now eating all the authentic Bong food.”

Chatting with The Daily Guardian on his favorite topic: food and street side sustenance, Rocky answers some questions for our readers.

Q. How did you discover new places where you could go eat? Did this depend on long queues and crowds, as in how popular are they and the food turnover?

Initially we would plan a route, let’s say Delhi to Manali & break it up into 200 km of driving per day. On that stretch we would get all the journalists writing about food to send us a list of the best eating joints that have been written about for decades. And this was mainly street & regional food, not 5 stars as those were un-affordable to the common man. As time went on, we started gathering data from bloggers & locals. Like en-route to Chandigarh, Gulshan Dhaba in Murthal is the best for breakfast with their freshly cooked paranthas & garam garam chai. The whole mission was about the journey of bringing the glory of Indian food to our viewers.

Q. In the dining out experience, would you consider desi ghee as a secret ingredient to enhance the taste of food?

Desi ghee has been a very active Indian ingredient for centuries, highly healthy and is used to intensify the flavor of the food, provided you know how to use it correctly. Making a dosa with ghee can completely alter the taste, or even dousing idlis with gunpowder and ghee, as opposed to using regular cooking oil. Add a dollop of smoking hot ghee with garam masala tadka to the cooked mutton curry and trust me, this will make your mutton finger licking good. Desi ghee is a very powerful ingredient and is a super food.

Q. Have you ever had any encounter with a world famous personality?

We keep meeting people from different walks of life. We were shooting at Raan of Kutch for the Raan Utsav, a carnival of music and dance. It was a full moon night and with a full lunar eclipse to follow. The Prime Minister Modi Ji who was then the Chief Minister of Gujarat had come to inaugurate the festival. He recognized us as he had watched the show and it was a pleasure interacting with him. We have had several actors on our show. Few of the most memorable ones are Ajay Devgan, Alia Bhatt, Arshad Warsi. Ajay has a very pleasant personality. We have shot with him, eaten with him, shared many jokes, he has a fabulous sense of humor and is very jocular. This was just before his film Golmaal got released.

Q. What got you and Mayur to conceptualize HOMP and its title?

The show was started by NDTV Good Times. They were looking for actors to anchor it. The director, Abhinandan Sekhri called us and as we were very familiar with most of the food pit stops in the India trucking routes, we got the deal of anchoring a food and travel show that went on to become India’s most popular cult show on food. The title was apt and described the show very well. We have had at least 7 shows, on food and travel, across India now, on 4 different channels. One particular show is on the rarest foods, smelliest foods, most expensive foods, spiciest foods.

Q. Have you been road tripping to any secret hidden away spots?

On our show, we target spots that not many people might know about. My list of secret spots:

1.    Khayam Chowk, Srinagar: Best Kebabs, Boti and Seekh

2.    Das Surti Khaman Wala, Ahmedabad: Best Khaman Dokhla and Farsaan

3.    Mylai Karpagambal Mess, Chennai: Traditional Tamil foods like pongal, podi dosa and snacks.

4.    Spicy Venue Hyderabad: MLA PotlAM Biryani that is eaten with Uluvacharu & pickles. Gongura Mamsam-mutton, Royala Iguru-prawns, Chapala Pulusu-fish curry.

5.    Niglat, Near Bhimtal: Best filo pastry and incredible western food.

Q. Which are your favorite eating-places and your favorite dishes?

My choicest of foods in the whole of India is the Tundey Kabab at the world famous Tundey Kababi at Chowk, in Lucknow The kababs are juicy and made traditional style. I also love Kerala cuisine, and my favorite eating joint is in Hotel Grand, in Kochi, Karimeen Pollichathu, and my chosen dish is Pearl Spot fish with many spices wrapped and cooked in a banana leaf. Just outside Bhuvaneshwar, Odisha is a place called Chilika Dhaba and the best thing to eat there is the masala prawn, for Rs. 70, you can get 10 large prawns, fresh out of Chilika lake right next door.

Q. Your 5 travel and eating related tips for your fans.

1. Carry your own drinking water, avoid drinking water anywhere outside.

2. Never make your travel about the destination only, as the journey itself is important. Stop on the way to take in sights of historic monuments, sunsets, landscapes. These all go down as memories to treasure.

3. When you are in a particular region, you must sample the fare of that place. Eating pizzas in let’s say Rajasthan is blasphemy. The authenticity of regional fare is supreme.

4. If you are looking to eat well, then ask around from your local cabbie, concierge, travel desk, and of course the locals. You cannot really go wrong. These guys always know which are the best eateries to go to. There are also bloggers covering cities & towns and a quick search will yield great results.

5. Our channel rockyandmayur on you tube will give you all the information on 9 cities in India for the best restaurants, diners and shacks you could visit. Rest of the food related data you can get in our books, which highlights every restaurant we have eaten at, like a food wiki giving the phone numbers, directions, what you should eat etc.

Q. Do you enjoy cooking?

In the mid 90s, I opened my own restaurant called Café Spice, specializing in Punjabi and Mughlai food. This was in Dilshad Garden, East Delhi. I had a passion for great cooking and I ran the restaurant for 7 months, indulging in my ongoing interest. I enjoy cooking street style Thai food as I trained in Thailand with street vendors, mastering the art of making great Thai food from scratch, using fresh ingredients.