Heh!
Thought I'd keep it relatively light this time. Everything is a mess. My cooking projects, work, the country (and the world), let's not get started... What might help is to take one's mind off it, for a few hours (maybe a few minutes every day, this month?) with movies/shows. Around food. Of course. What did you think? I was talking about dystopian fiction when I said The Hunger Games? Tch tch.
So much for light, the email draft has turned out unimaginably long. So I will send some of it now and the rest of it in a few days. And I know I watch far less TV/shows than most others I know. So if they were to get around to writing an email about what they watch, it'd be a PDF or an ePub. Sigh!
(I also vow not to write such painfully long BS going forward. If writing it can be this time consuming, reading it, I'd rather not!)
As I have mentioned everywhere (here and on social media already), I was quite ill at the beginning of last year and was bedridden for a few months. As a result, I binge-watched everything (mostly food-related) I found remotely interesting on Netflix (or TV or Prime) - a fully-functional, hyperactive brain and the inability to do much otherwise doesn't bode very well - a bunch of Marathi movies, some (then) recent shows and all things food I could lay my shaky hands on.
So, here goes.
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I watched whatever I could of both Ugly Delicious and The Mind of a Chef. The latter is more technical (for lack of a better word). So Ugly Delicious is better, in that sense, and for a more generic audience. The next obvious choice was all seasons of Chef's Table. While the first two seasons were awesome, I got the feeling that for Seasons 5 and 6 they were trying too hard to be inclusive. More recently, Street Food, Cooking on High and Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner were complete downers. I was a complete fan of The Chef Show - awesome recipes AND awesome clay animation to boot. Season 2, however, again, felt a little forced.
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Somehow, as the case has always been, I've read or watched or heard or followed on Instagram (or whatever!) more American content than British. However, Million Pound Menu, The Big Family Cooking Showdown and The Great British Bake Off are shows I absolutely love.
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And here's something I always plug, when I think about desserts - a Rube Goldberg contraption made ENTIRELY out of bakeware and that was part of Cake Boss.
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Buddy Valastro (of Cake Boss) makes me think of Duff Goldman and the few episodes of Buddy vs Duff I have watched and other competitive shows, in general.
I watched back to back episodes of Iron Chef America a decade ago (Netflix was not a thing yet and good old YouTube or torrents were our best bets). But for US shows on Netflix, I've watched The Final Table and Nailed It! The former was disappointing and the latter was so bad it was good.
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It's hard not to mention food and not talk about Masterchef. Masterchef Canada is meh. Masterchef USA feels very Ekta-Kapoor-esque. Masterchef India - the lesser the said, the better. Masterchef Australia is the best of the lot. But with the change of the judges starting S12, I'm not sure how it's all going to work out. Australian TV drew me to Sugar Rush and Zumbo's Just Desserts - both featuring Adriano Zumbo (whom I might very well have the hots for).
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Coming back to binge-watching stuff on Netflix this last year, I ended up watching hordes of movies of Indian origin - mostly Hindi, some English, some Marathi. Today's Special and The Hundred Foot Journey were both chance watches. They were not bad films. But they were not good either. If that makes any sense.
Movies like The Lunchbox and Stanley ka Dabba were must-watches, given the nature of the project I attempted. Both made well and clutching at the Indian middle-class ethos in a strange way... it was hard to dislike them (or not weep through certain scenes, for that matter).
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A couple of years ago, I really wanted to do a Binging with Babish for Indian food. Of course, getting a videographer for free was no joke and I also suffered pretty badly on production quality. Several lessons learnt. However Engish Vinglish and Gulaab Jaam have a place in my heart - mostly for the food (and, genuinely, not so much for the melodrama or the romance.
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Older movies, well, it's hard to not mention suran "mutton" kebabs from Bawarchi or the "Switzerland ka cake" from Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron. In more recent times, I didn't like Cheeni Kum, though I know several people who did. So let's leave it at that, I guess. And then there was Daawat-e-Ishq, which I couldn't bring myself to watch even 30 minutes of. Luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khurana made me guffaw in some parts. Call me old-fashioned, but a part of me was unable to come to terms with weed movies being made so casually in India. How many watchers actually get it, leave alone appreciate it? Or are movies of this kind intended for a certain audience alone? Bombay Talkies from 2013 or 2014 had a short centred around Amitabh Bachchan called Murabba that left me with mixed feelings. I AM glad for the lead actor who has begun carving his niche in the past couple of years though.
Hehe. I also watched Muramba, a Marathi film that had nothing to do with food, but instead was about the sweet-salty aspects of life.
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I really do wish we'd have documentaries (and not just food shows like Chakh Le India or Pickle Nation) to showcase Indian food. Muramba is hardly about Murabba. Murabba is more emotional than about food history. Gulaab Jaam isn't about Gulab Jamuns.
You get the gist.
I did quite like Pickle Nation and I've heard about some newer shows that I might enjoy watching too. I still do think that Indian TV has a lot of catching up to do when it comes to this genre. If "foodies" who also make shows watch non-Indian stuff and appreciate it, I'm sure they are putting in the effort to up the general quality and content.
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Speaking of well-made content around food, I'm quite a fan of such content as long as due credit is given. I chanced upon #FoodFilms sometime in 2017 and must have watched the videos a dozen times each at least.
- S’mores made Wes Anderson style
- Fast-cutting (duh! pun intended) and uber-stylized waffles in a video as if shot by Michael Bay
- Pancakes Alfonso-Cuarón-style
- Gore galore if Quentin Tarantino were to make a short film for a recipe showcasing spaghetti with meatballs
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But when badly done, it's even more disappointing. Chef (the English one) has become one of my favourite date movies over the past few years and, honestly, I think the Hindi one is shit.
On the other hand, I've watched neither Babette's Feast nor Chocolat, so don't come ahead with swords, please.
Julie and Julia and Ratatouille where both Raksha Bandhan movies - I don't have any biological brothers and my boy cousins are both very young. So, well into adulthood, I assume those moves were merely platonic or just boys trying to get into my pants using Raksha Bandhan as an easy stepping stone. Oh well.
I DO remember being home one summer from grad school and crying as I watched Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs, the climax, at least, and I think it was one of the first few times my mother saw me cry while watching a movie as an adult. Obviously, she remarked at how I still watch cartoons (eye roll).
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Eye rolls are something that I've gotten from my mum. Anyone would roll their eyes if they figured I'm married to a man who wants to open a sandwich shop that has fare called The Umrao Jaan Sandwich (because it has dill and cheese) and the LGBT Sandwich (lettuce, gherkin, bacon, tomato). Say your prayers for me, okay!!
You'll see my book recommendations and some more nonsense in a few days! And, until next time, nom nom.
- Meha
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