[water lapping]
[solo wind instrument playing]
[traditional music playing]
[instructor] Inhale.
[inhales]
[both] Om.
Let me tell you something about yoga.
Just be comfortable.
Your legs, if you want, you can keep it extended.
[man laughs]
I don't like it.
[instructor] And feel the stretch.
[traditional music playing]
This is called the thunderbolt posture.
Nope.
It's very, very difficult for me.
My butt cannot reach my heels, and my head cannot reach the mat.
You have to get into positions and then hold them.
[instructor] Yes. Very nice.
[Phil] And that's both slow
and excruciating for me
because I'm old, and I'm stiff.
[groans]
That's my "Om."
-Ah. [chuckles] -Oi.
[upbeat theme music playing]
♪ A happy hungry man's ♪
♪ Traveling all across The sea and the land ♪
♪ He's trying to understand ♪
♪ The art of pasta Pork, chicken, and lamb ♪
♪ He will drive to you ♪
♪ He will fly to you ♪
♪ He will sing for you ♪
♪ And he'll dance for you ♪
♪ He will laugh with you ♪
♪ And he'll cry for you ♪
♪ There's just one thing He asks in return ♪
♪ Somebody please, somebody please ♪
♪ Can somebody ♪
♪ Somebody feed Phil? ♪
♪ Somebody feed him now ♪
[song ends]
[traditional music playing]
[Phil] There's nothing like taking a boat
and sailing into the port to the Gateway of India.
This iconic structure was completed in 1924
and makes for an impressive arrival to the city of Mumbai.
I have always wanted to go to India,
but people who've been have said I need to be ready
to experience all of life, all at once.
Rich, poor, beautiful, crazy, overwhelming.
And then you have the food, which is an adventure on its own.
My Western stomach might not be quite ready
for what I'm going to experience here.
So I've enlisted the help of an old friend to navigate my first stop,
the city street food scene.
This is a new experience for me.
Well, we're going to have a good evening.
[Phil] One of the best Indian restaurants in London is called Dishoom.
We showed it on the show.
-Oh, wow! -[Phil] And the founder is Kavi Thakrar.
He traveled to Mumbai to take me to some of his favorite places
around Mohammed Ali Road,
believed to be named after Mohammad Ali Jauhar,
an Indian Muslim activist, who organized, alongside other leaders, like Gandhi,
for this country's independence.
[Kavi] We're going to this fabulous place called Surti Bara Handi.
It's been around since the 1940s for good reason.
[Kavi] Bara Handi means 12 pots,
and as you can see in here, these guys have 12 different types of stews.
Mutton nahari and paya. Mutton here doesn't mean lamb.
-[Phil] What does it mean? -[Kavi] It's a goat.
[Phil] Ah, I love goat.
I love goat too. So you've got the soft, fuller shank stew.
That's called nihari.
I've got the paya here, which is goat trotters, as we say.
Both those come with bone marrow on top.
Really rich, really filling.
[traditional music continues]
-Yes! -[man] Thank you.
-Thank you, my friend. Fantastic. -Thank you.
[Kavi] Did you try this one?
[playful music playing]
-Good? -That's friggin' great.
-Thank you. -[Kavi] Thanks so much.
-This is awesome. -I'm glad you enjoy it.
I don't know what I like better. They're different stews.
It's not just they put different meat in the same stew.
These are completely different.
[Kavi] The base spices are like well-kept secrets.
Wow, it tastes like you're in someone's house.
Yeah, I love that.
You come and share a meal with the person next to you.
-I do that. -I love it.
[pulsing music playing]
[Kavi] What a place.
The word is "romantic,"
not in the conventional sense.
[Kavi] Yeah.
[Phil] But you're somewhere,
you're in civilization, you're in life, you're in...
-[Kavi] Humanity. -[Phil] Yes.
Mohammed Ali Road feels like the center of everything,
and the marketplace is everywhere.
Everyone working at fixing cars, to selling fruit, to selling clothing.
Every manner of life in the streets.
Where do you have traffic where the traffic includes cows?
There seems to be room for everyone.
There's a huge Muslim population here.
There's a huge Hindu population here.
There's a huge Christian population here.
I'm the only Jew.
-Hi, everybody. -[man] Hi.
This is the Indian Hotel. How many rooms at this hotel?
Hotel means restaurant.
[Kavi] This is a Muslim part of town.
So in Bombay, a lot of the Islamic community lives here.
We'll be eating out tonight, a lot of meat.
-Typically not eaten by Hindus. -Right.
[Kavi] We're gonna have some delicious stuff.
Chicken baida roti is cooked with delicious spices in a bread
with also an egg.
-Thank you. -[Phil] Here we go. Cheers!
Cheers, my man.
[laughs] Thank you.
-How's that? -Mm!
-Very, very good! -[man] Thanks.
When you were developing Dishoom,
were you basing some of it on stuff that you found on this street?
Totally.
We really love to share the comfort food of Bombay.
The cafés or Mohammed Ali Road, the street food,
people's homes, the beaches.
What I love about that is it's nostalgic for people that know this place.
What does this cost, what we just ate?
This is cents. Maybe 30 cents.
-What? -Yeah.
Really affordable. And you'll see as we go around this part of town,
it's really accessible to everybody.
We're going to get a bheja fry.
-Yes. -Which is a brain curry.
It'll be the most delicious brain you eat today.
[Phil chuckles nervously]
-Remind me to talk to Richard later. -[laughs]
-We can give some to Richard too. [laughs] -We're giving a lot to Richard.
Every culture has something like this as well, right?
Making the most of what's available, using the whole animal.
-The brain curry, bheja fry. -[Phil] Yes.
[Kavi] With pav. Pav is a soft white bun.
Pav is the greatest thing on earth. I don't know about that.
-[Kavi] Who's going first? -You.
-Okay. I love it. -You've had it already.
-I know I like the bread. -[Kavi] Soft, pillowy, white.
It's gonna test your one-handed eating skills.
I can do it. Look at me, Richard. Look at me go.
[Richard] I see it.
[Phil] Wait I lost my... I lost my brains.
[laughs]
-Ready? -Let's do it.
[upbeat music playing]
You know what? If you didn't know, you wouldn't know.
It's just a delicious sauce. Look at me going again.
-I'm a brainiac! -There you go.
Oh, Richard. Here you go.
-It's really good. -[Richard] Really good.
What's this guy making?
-Let me go have a look. -I'll go with you.
-[Kavi] It's called a Bombay sandwich. -[Phil] A Bombay sandwich.
Bombay sandwiches are great.
Relatively healthy. It's got onions, cucumber...
-Tomato, beetroot... -[Phil] A vegetarian sandwich.
-Good? -I love it.
-Good. -Thank you. We're moving on.
[horns honking]
[traditional music playing]
[Phil] With the sun setting, it's time for dessert.
On to the next stop on Mohammed Ali Road,
which, if you can believe it, gets even more crowded at night.
-[Kavi] We don't use sidewalks. -[Phil] I see.
[Kavi] Yeah, 'cause they're busy with people.
I don't know if you're gonna be able to hear anything we said on this road
because the honking from every scooter and every car,
it's like if your introduction to New York
was Times Square on New Year's Eve
during a heat wave,
and then multiply that by a hundred.
We're just round the corner from the next place.
-[indistinct chatter] -[horns honking]
Dessert.
We've got mawa jalebi and mawa gulab jamun.
Syrupy donuts slightly warm, and they're like little bits of heaven.
My mom makes delicious ones of these, which are mawa, a milk solid.
It has milk powder in the batter.
-That's a beautiful donut. -Isn't it amazing?
-Yeah. -A bit of fried goodness in a sweet syrup.
I would never... Thank God you're here. How'd you find this?
Followed my nose. Try the next one.
All right.
[Kavi] So this is a jalebi.
Normally, these are bright orange. You may have seen them.
[Phil] Funnel cake.
Similar. But because of the milk in it...
it goes brown.
-There you go. -This is a sweet ending.
-You're a sweet guy. -As are you. Thank you.
[horns honking]
[traditional music playing]
[Phil] I've heard people call Mumbai "Maximum City,"
and it is.
There's 21 million people living in and around Mumbai.
And India, as of this recording,
has just become
the most populous nation on the face of the earth.
The crew and I put India over the top when we arrived.
But the growth of this area didn't happen overnight.
The city of Mumbai has been an important center
of religion and trade for centuries.
In the 1500s, the Portuguese took control, then later the British.
Back then, the city was known as Bombay.
But in 1947, the British were expelled,
and in 1995, the official name of the city was changed to Mumbai,
which was a final little bon voyage to colonialism.
[traditional music playing]
[Phil] I'm going to try to explain this.
There's a delivery service throughout Mumbai.
They're called dabbawalas,
men on bicycles, who pick up home-cooked lunches
from women across the city and deliver them to hungry Mumbai workers.
Now why is this incredible?
Let's say your wife makes a delicious curry,
but the paratha is better from your friend's wife at work.
The dabbawalas have figured out a system
to get you that curry or that paratha to you at your office.
They deliver all the components, and it could be four or five
mixed and matched and assembled to over 130,000 workers
across the city every day,
not using a phone, not using the internet.
It's all word of mouth, and they jot it down.
These are the dabbawalas.
What would it be like to live a life like that?
[doorbell rings]
[upbeat music playing]
[indistinct chatter]
[horns honking]
I am now an official Mumbai dabbawala.
On behalf of my fellow dabbawalas, I couldn't have done it without you.
-How many times have you been here? -[Ethan] Very many.
-[Phil] Very many? -At least 15.
He was just saying, "We should go back tonight, after, again."
-[Phil] This is your favorite? -Definitely.
[Phil] I have a friend named Nigel Vaz.
Love this guy.
He's a New Yorker like me, but he does business all over the world
as the CEO of his company, Publicis Sapient,
and he's in Mumbai this week with his wonderful son Ethan.
They are taking me to their favorite restaurant, Delhi Darbar.
So, Ethan, you picked the menu. You're my guide. What meat is that?
-[Ethan] Uh, baby goat, pretty much. -[Phil] I love goat.
Do you know what the most consumed animal in the world is?
I thought it was goat because Richard told me that.
[Richard] That's such a lie. -And then on camera...
He wanted to, uh, make me look stupid, so he corrected me in the show.
And we left it in. You know why we left it in?
Because he's in charge of editing.
[laughter]
-[Nigel] This is amazing. -[Phil] Great.
[Nigel] It's basically, uh, nuts.
There's a little bit of cream, but it's a lot of cashew and almonds.
Come on. This is great. Ethan, you know things.
[Nigel] It's interesting with India,
there's like everything is turned on to dial 10, right?
Then when you actually get into it, it's amazing subtlety.
Like with food, the flavors initially just hit you. Boom.
Then you get under them, and it's like, "Oh my God!"
You know, I'm staying at the beautiful hotel,
and I'm looking at the Gateway of India.
[Nigel] Yeah.
But for me, the Gateway to India is the food.
Totally. There's just so much history and culture, like immigration.
We were talking about it this morning.
Apparently in India, there was a king, a thousand years ago or so,
um, who had Persian people immigrating.
The king sent, as a metaphor, a bowl of milk to them
and basically said, "Look, the bowl is full to the brim."
"As in, there's no more room."
[laughing] "You guys have to go back."
So one of the Parsi leaders sent the same bowl of milk back,
this time dissolved with sugar,
saying, "We're not going to take more room,
but we'll make things sweeter and better."
Listen, all I try to do is say how
immigration and the mixing of cultures makes everything better.
Absolutely.
[Phil] What's this?
The mutton pathani, no?
-Yes. Pathani. -Yeah, okay.
-How is that? It takes that... -Excuse me. Oh my God!
-That's pretty good. Right? -[Phil] Ethan!
No wonder he wants to come back.
-I wanna come back. -[Nigel] Yeah.
-I love it. -[Ethan] Unreal.
And you have business here. You're the head of a giant corporation.
-We built some of the first online banks. -Yeah.
And online retail businesses.
If you think about most businesses today, they didn't grow up in this digital world.
So our whole raison d'être is to help them thrive,
not just survive, in this new world.
[fire crackling]
Wow! Tandoori chicken.
[upbeat music playing]
-You think this is okay to do this? -[Nigel] Yeah. Oh, yeah.
-[Phil] Wow! -How good is that?
[Phil] This is the best tandoori chicken I ever had.
That's great to hear.
There have been times when Ethan and I are eating this food,
I'm saying, "Somebody like Phil would really like this food."
"How come he didn't come to India?"
Somebody like Phil just got here.
[Nigel] Yeah.
I'll say it again. If you like something, go to the source.
Every meal I have, I say, "This is the best Indian food I ever had."
And now, this is the best.
Hold on. There's always room for dessert.
-This is... Oh. -[Ethan] It's like a rice pudding.
[Nigel] This is a little bit of saffron and a pistachio in it.
-[Phil] You knew about this? -It's my favorite dessert here.
I quit the show. It's his show now.
[laughing]
[traditional music playing]
[Phil] It's no wonder so many people flock to Mumbai.
Everything's here. It's the financial capital of India.
It's home to the massive Bollywood film industry.
And when you have such a big influx of people from all over,
it's only natural that cooks get inventive,
and new dishes are born.
So I'm excited to taste a little cultural fusion.
The top food critic in India is named Vir Sanghvi.
-Your résumé is very impressive. -I made it all up myself. [chuckles]
He's been kind enough to travel from Delhi to Mumbai tonight
to take me to one of his favorite restaurants, Trishna.
[Phil] Here we go.
Do you know Indian food at all from America?
Yes. I have it at least once a week because it's one of my favorite cuisines.
-That's very unusual. -It is?
-Really? -Yeah.
Americans on the whole don't know a lot about Indian food.
Brits know all about it, or think they do.
But Americans, we're still sort of breaking new ground.
-Have you been to Dishoom? -I haven't been to Dishoom.
I want you to go for breakfast, and I want you to have this...
-I'll never wake up in time. -No?
-[laughing] I'm not a breakfast guy. -He'd make this for you.
It's basically a bacon, egg, and cheese on naan rolled up.
That I will wake up for.
[laughter]
You know how some things, they're not authentic?
-They're delicious, and you don't care. -Exactly.
Authenticity is so overrated, right?
I'm with you. Your grandmother has an Indian recipe.
What makes hers more authentic than the grandma who lives next door?
-Exactly. -Right?
She was a great cook, to be fair.
But I think that it's better to go out and improve on dishes,
and not be held back by the past.
How old is this place?
This place is fairly old.
Around the 1970s, Sichuan food came to India.
And Chinese food became a really big deal in India,
and it led to the creation of what we call Indian-Chinese,
which is a cuisine that's very tasty, very spicy,
and which no Chinese person would recognize.
[playful music playing]
-[Phil] What's this? -[Vir] This is calamari?
-[Phil] Oh, I'm so excited! -This is a fish here.
[Phil] This is a fish?
[waiter] Jumbo prawn on charcoal.
-[Phil] You're not kidding, jumbo. My God! -[waiter] It's cooked in the tandoor.
This is a lobster with chili garlic.
[laughs]
I have a giant... Okay.
This, ladies and gentlemen, is butter garlic crab.
They're refusing to serve you the big crab
because you'll look like a fool eating it on television
because it's a messy experience.
I don't need a crab to make me look like a fool.
So we're paying a little extra today for that?
No, it's the same price.
-It is? -Yes.
Who would, uh, want to work so hard?
A lot of people, the fun is tearing it apart.
Listen, my dad could go after a lobster.
At 90 years old, he could get in there and get every tiny shred of everything.
To watch him, he was like a jeweler getting in there.
Here I go. This is the dish.
-[Vir] This is it. -[Richard] Yes.
[music pauses]
There's a little bit of spice in it, to sort of make them both sing together.
The flavor of butter and garlic we have, but not like that.
[Vir] This is called chicken Manchurian. Chili, Indian spices, and tomato ketchup.
Are we going to eat the entire menu course by course?
It's not recognizably Chinese, but somewhere in the middle.
-A very good middle. -Mm.
So much of the food is made up, starting with the crab.
-The chicken Manchurian is a made-up dish. -Yes.
The prawn Koliwada was created in a suburb of Bombay.
So these are dishes made by enterprising cooks,
often at street stalls, which have now passed to the mainstream.
[waiter] This is a fish curry.
[Phil] Oh good, another plate. Good.
[laughs]
-[Vir] Where have you been to? -[Phil] I went to Mohammed Ali Road.
It's an experience that most visitors to India don't get
because they're too frightened to go there, so I'm glad you went.
I would not have gone alone. I would not know what to eat.
Yeah.
That's why we need people like you to point us the right way.
Don't let your fear stop you from going.
Because every time I go out of my comfort zone a little bit,
that's the most memorable thing.
And you come back slightly changed, I always find,
when you leave your comfort zone.
You're not the same person when you come back.
That's the thing. And to get food like this.
[traditional music playing]
This is the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, which was built in 1903.
This hotel's been through a lot. A lot of glory.
They've hosted world dignitaries, royalty.
It's one of the most beautiful places I've ever gotten to stay.
[playing sitar]
I'm a lucky boy.
[continues playing]
[Phil] Ooh, you know what's nice? High tea and snacks in the Palace Lounge.
-Hello. How are you today? -I'm doing good. How are you, sir?
Good. I'm happy to see you always.
-[waiter] Some tea for you. -[Phil] Thank you.
[jazzy music playing]
[Phil] The snacks were taking a little while today,
so we raided our own supply.
[Richard] I really like these.
West Indies hot and sweet chili.
This is another good reason to travel.
A lot of different flavors you can't get at home.
Even if you're just a "sit on the couch and eat potato chips" guy...
you're going to be happy.
-Oh, my friend! -Good afternoon, sir.
[Phil] This is Chef Dipika. I'm already a fan of her breakfast here.
Ah, there you are.
[laughter]
I think I'll start with something which is my favorite,
which is the vada pav.
[Phil] Wow! Look at that guy.
-This is the pav, the bread. -[Chef Dipika] This is the pav, the bread.
Fried potato. Lots of flavorings, curry leaves,
coriander, mustard seeds, turmeric, green chili on top.
This is the real comfort food.
This is a steamed kind of layered roulade,
which is made with chickpeas, mustard seeds.
Quite a delicacy.
[Phil] How nice is this? Okay.
[Chef Dipika] This is the bun maska. You have to dip it in that.
Who doesn't like that?
Wait a minute.
-These are all the Indian sweets. -[Phil] Sweets!
[gobbles]
[Chef Dipika laughs]
This is called the gujiya, and...
That's a good name.
It's a little crunchy, and a little soft inside.
And inside there is some condensed milk and some dry fruits.
That makes you so happy.
-Tell me the name again. -Gujiya.
Gujiya, because that's what happens in your mouth.
[laughing]
-You eat it, and you say, "Gujiya!" -Gujiya! Yes.
[Chef Dipika giggles]
-Such a pleasure. -My pleasure.
She can't wait to get out of here.
-Thank you. -I'll see you for breakfast tomorrow?
-[laughs] -[Phil] Try to keep me away.
Now where was I?
[string quartet music playing]
[giggles]
[music ends]
[horns honking]
[triumphant music playing]
[Phil] You ever play cricket?
You ever watch cricket? You know what cricket is?
My answer to all these questions are, no,
hardly, barely.
But it's the most popular sport in India.
The British brought it here in the early 1700s.
Teams take turns at bat, trying to score the most runs.
One way is by making a hit and running between the stumps
with your bat in your hand.
Simple enough, right?
So I thought, why not give it a try?
-How are you? -[player] Hi.
[Phil] Thank you for letting me ruin your game.
[laughing]
[Phil] I'm going to a gymkhana. This is the police gymkhana.
Lovely field, especially at night.
My fellow players are all teenagers.
I'm going to fit right in.
My instructor is Sulakshana Naik, a cricket champion in this country.
[Sulakshana] These are the pads.
-I want every protection possible. -[Sulakshana chuckles]
[Phil] And today, she's going to give me a lesson.
Is it comfortable?
-No, but... -[laughter]
-[Sulakshana] You can try. -Do I have a choice?
You know what's great about this? It makes it even harder to see.
[Sulakshana] Just pull it a little down.
Ah, I see. This is where you see out of.
[player] Just to hold the bat properly. Keep it back here.
[Phil] Okay.
Jesus.
-[Sulakshana] Oh. -Oh.
[laughing]
Pretend you are pitching to a four-year-old boy.
-[player laughs] -Yes.
[upbeat music playing]
[Sulakshana] Swing it!
Aw!
-[indistinct] -I'll feed you.
That's the name of the show.
You know when I was 12, I was in the Little League.
And they actually gave me an award...
-[Sulakshana] For hitting. -For not showing up.
[laughter]
-How's my stance? -[player] Perfect.
-[Phil] I'm perfect! Come on! -[player] Yeah.
-Run with the bat! -[Sulakshana] Yes, run!
[player] Run! On the right!
[Richard laughs]
Love it! Good job!
[applause]
[chuckles] Hey!
[Phil] Okay. Now for something I am good at.
Pani puri for everybody!
These crispy fried potato snacks knock it out of the park with my teammates.
Enjoy it. Enjoy, enjoy.
Did you... You didn't have. Come on.
Don't be shy.
How about you? You're very quiet.
-[Sulakshana] He speaks a lot in practice. -He speaks a lot in practice?
-They think you talk too much. -[laughter]
[girl] Go!
-[cheering] -Mm!
Next time you see me, I'll be a star of cricket...
[laughing]
...because I'm going to practice now a lot.
And when I say a lot, I mean probably never again.
[laughing]
[Phil] I may never be a legend on the cricket pitch,
but when it comes to packing snacks for the team,
I'm what you'd call a natural.
[music fades]
[gentle music playing]
[Phil] I have a friend named Chintan Pandya.
He has four Indian restaurants in New York.
Dhamaka, Semma, Rowdy Rooster, Adda.
I've had some of the best meals ever at his restaurants.
He's in Mumbai this week to take me to one of his favorites.
This is Soam.
First up are a bunch of drinks.
I'm getting my fluids.
Including mango lassi.
Maybe the king of drinks. Why?
Because mango is the king of fruit. I'll fight you.
-[Chintan] It's mango season in India. -I know.
-And especially in Mumbai. -I had Alphonso mango this morning.
You had the Alphonso?
Alphonso mango.
-That's my detective name. -Oh, wow.
It's true.
Oh, here we go.
Ah, here's my old friend pani puri.
-Can I add the lentil rolls? Mung? -Please, you do it.
-Mung, like mung beans. -This is aloo, ragda, potatoes.
[Phil] Aloo is potato, yes.
And then these are little lentils.
Yeah, nice. Beautiful.
I like that. I know what that is.
-[Chintan] Chutney. -Yeah.
This I haven't seen.
I've been building up to this moment for a long time.
That's the moment.
[music ends]
This is what you manifested for years.
But Chin, you... you fed me in New York.
Not with my hand.
-That's... -From your hands.
-From my hands, but yes. -Right?
You have probably the two best Indian restaurants in America.
We have four of them, and you only said two, that's only 50%.
[traditional music playing]
[Phil] Well, I'm 100% curious about this next dish.
-[Chintan] You just remove the top of it. -Take off the top.
That's egg?
No, it's pure veg. It's vegan.
-What is it? -It's chickpea flour.
Ah!
[Chintan] It's called panki, and then it's grilled and steamed.
The reason I chose this place is this is a food that my mother would cook,
but I could never find it in a restaurant setting.
And the first time I ate here,
I was blown away as to how this simple food is transformed
into this perfection at this place.
-So you can eat it like this on its own. -Okay.
Once you're done, then you can have sauce on the side if you want.
It's so much more fun eating with your hands.
I think all food tastes better.
[upbeat music playing]
This, when it's cooked in my house, it's like a flatbread which is pan-seared.
And these guys do it this way, which is very tasty.
I never dare to say that to my mother, otherwise I'll be kicked out of my house.
-I have to say your version is better. -Always.
[Chintan] Yes.
So tell me about your house growing up. You were here in Mumbai?
I grew up in Mumbai. I was this kid who loved to eat,
and I was from this middle-class family where,
you know, eating out is a very big thing growing up.
-In my mind, I'm planning the entire day. -We hardly ever.
"I'm gonna walk there, I'm going to eat this, eat that."
So I loved eating.
When I would be 13, 14, it struck me, what if I become a chef?
-I can eat as much as I want. -Yes.
I don't have to pay for it, and I bloody well will get paid for it.
So I said, "This is like the most win-win-win situation for me."
My dream was only slightly different.
Eat, eat, and eat.
And just be friends with chefs.
-[Phil] Ooh. -[indistinct]
[Chintan] This is like a porridge. Rice and lentils.
So my mom now lives with me in New York,
and she'll ask me, "What do you want to eat?"
I'm like, "I want to eat khichdi," this.
-This is the most simplest thing. -Simple.
I can eat it every day of my life now.
It's so good.
-That is the ghee, clarified butter. -[Phil] Ah. Yeah. Ooh.
-[Chintan] Curry. -How am I eating this with my hands?
[Chintan] I want to show you.
[Richard] Philip, did you wash your hands?
[chuckling] I did, but I'm honestly not sure if I washed them well enough.
[Richard laughs]
If you want a little crunch, you can...
-Eat it like this. -Yeah?
But the way I like it is, I just crush it inside.
This is the way I like to eat it.
And then you just go...
-Yes. -[Richard laughs]
When you practice, you learn it within two, three days. It's easy.
[Phil] Yeah.
We will make you pro before you leave.
[Phil] I'm four years old again.
[playful music builds, fades]
[Phil] I'm back with my friend Nigel, and he's sharing another gem in the city.
We're going to a school that works with the Agastya Foundation,
a nonprofit Nigel and his company partner with
to help provide resources to schools to teach kids hands-on learning
in the sciences and arts.
This happens every time I come home.
Oh, thank you.
[giggles]
Well, here's a welcome.
[loud banging drum]
It's how I'd like to be welcomed from now on everywhere I go.
[laughs]
Bravo! Namaste.
[Hariharan] Hello, welcome. Hurry up.
[Phil] This is Hariharan,
executive director at the Agastya International Foundation.
Agastya is all about building scientific temper
among the children with whom we work with
through experiential science learning,
which reaches to around two million children
across 22 states in the country.
We supplement the school education.
Essentially provide them
what is basically necessary in terms of doing things with hand.
[Phil] Arts and science.
Arts and science. These are areas we focus on because...
-It's needed everywhere in the world. -Absolutely.
An organization like that has supported us in this endeavor.
We're really happy to be a partner.
Why don't we go in and have a glimpse of what we do?
Yeah.
[Phil] Ah!
Hi, everybody.
The whole idea is to teach children using these models,
so that a majority of what they see is retained with them.
This team has got a smart helmet.
[Phil] A smart helmet. Wow.
[teacher] Whenever somebody wears a helmet, a fan will start.
Ah! Keep you cool.
[Nigel] I don't think it's about the fan.
-Put the helmet on, the bike won't start. -[Phil] Ah!
He's just trying to prove it with the fan.
-Very smart. -That's cool.
You can cut the part where I thought it was about an air-conditioned helmet.
-[Richard laughs] -[Phil gasps]
-It looks like Richard. -[Richard laughs]
[Phil] Science has never been my strong suit,
so seeing young people using it
to come up with creative solutions to everyday problems
gives me hope for the future.
[Nigel] Much of the work Publicis Sapient do in communities,
is working with places like schools
to help create the next generation of talent
with art, with science, bringing it to life,
so they understand why we need to worry about the planet,
why we need to understand science concepts.
It's not about Newton's law, but how you apply it.
Well, this is amazing to see.
Thank you for showing me your projects. I'm so impressed with you.
Now I can show you something if you come upstairs with me, okay?
I learned something when visiting schools.
Bring ice cream.
Mm! Mango!
Take this.
[Phil chuckles]
Hi, you're a great drummer.
Give me a high five. Yeah!
[Phil giggles]
-How is it? You like it. -Yes.
Oh, a selfie.
Namaste!
[all] Namaste.
[phone ringing]
Hi!
Hi, Judy. Are you in some fancy, gorgeous hotel too?
Yeah. With the HVAC thing right there.
-[laughs] -No, it's not fancy.
If you could see my view out of my hotel window,
you'd be really jealous.
You know where I am?
-Mumbai? -Yes!
-Ah... How did I know that? -[Phil laughs]
[Judy] Wait. Are you having fun?
Am I having fun? It's unbelievable. I'm having my masala chai.
I love masala chai. I've never had it, but I know I love it.
-[laughs] -I know I love it.
[Phil] This is the Taj Hotel. There's a baker here named Samruddhi.
[Judy] Oh my God, I can't. I cannot.
Why do you torture me? Why do you torture me?
-One of my favorite things to do. -What's the middle like?
Soft, fresh, beautiful, a little crispy outside.
Thick cookies, but soft.
One of the best chocolate chip cookies I've had in my life.
And then, you won't believe this.
A framed picture.
What, the frame is from, like...
No way! Are you kidding? What is it? Is it chocolate?
The whole thing.
-I have to say, I am delicious. -Look at that!
-My God! What is your life? -I don't know.
What is your life?
My life is this.
That's edible.
Do you feel guilty eating your children?
Nope. And...
Oh my God!
-Not just the front. The back of the book. -Are you kidding me?
-Oh my God! What is that? -And then...
What is that made of? What is that made...
Oh my God! Why?
Judy, no one's ever made, uh, your book into chocolate?
[Richard laughs]
And pictures of you and your family into chocolate?
I'm very aware that this is a G-rated show.
-Yes. -But if it wasn't... Ooh.
Judy, do you have a joke for Max today?
-That's usable on a nice show like this? -I have a joke for Max.
Now, I have a really good joke,
but one word in the joke is questionable,
but I spoke to Richard and, you know...
-[Phil] He has terrible taste. -The joke is so good.
[Richard giggles]
All right, do it.
So these two men, elderly men, they're very close friends.
And right before the pandemic, one of the men becomes a widower.
And they don't see each other for a couple of years,
and then they meet up for lunch.
One man says to the other, "How are you doing?"
"How was the pandemic?"
"I'm so sorry you didn't have your wife with you."
And he said, "You know, I'm doing really, really well."
He said, "Are you seeing anyone?"
And he said, "Actually, I'm seeing twins."
And he's, "Twins?"
"How can you tell them apart?"
And he said, "Well, Nicole has this beautiful tattoo on her lower back
of a red rose,
and Rob has a ****."
-[laughs] -[Richard laughs]
What I love about that joke is the inclusivity.
[Richard and Judy laugh]
-Judy Gold, everybody. -[applause]
-I Iove you. -Love you.
[gentle music playing]
[Phil] If you saw the New York episode, then you met my friend, Floyd Cardoz,
a great chef who took my friend Rupa and me to an Indian temple in Queens,
and we ate downstairs, and it was fantastic.
Tragically, Floyd passed away due to Covid in 2020,
and we all miss him dearly.
But his culinary legacy lives on, especially here at the Bombay Canteen,
which he co-founded with his partners Sameer, Yash, and head chef Hussain.
It's now a Mumbai institution.
Our fixer Pooja is good friends with these guys,
and is joining us for lunch.
-I think we should toast to Floyd. -[Sameer] Indeed.
We wouldn't be here without him.
-We really wouldn't. Cheers. -[Pooja] Yeah.
-[in high-pitched voice] Yum! -[laughter]
That's very good.
Tell me what's happening.
Most of what you see over here
could remind you of something you've eaten on the streets,
or an experience of nostalgia of us growing up in different parts of India,
and then kind of bring it to life with our own version of it.
This dish right here is an idea to showcase grains in India.
-Yes. -So it's textural, it's creamy.
It's got the pomegranate that gives it the juiciness. I'd love for you to try it.
[Phil] I'm ready.
Mm!
This was the first dish that Floyd gave his approval on, so it's special to me.
[Phil] I love that. So this looks like a taco.
It is a taco. This is a dish from the northeast part of India,
where they do rice with pork.
Our version of it has pork belly that's been cooked with black sesame
and then finished off with spicy king chili sauce on top.
And the rice is represented by the rice flatbread.
Oh boy!
This could give LA tacos a run for their money. This is pretty great.
You actually worked at Eleven Madison Park, right?
Yes, I did.
[Phil] I mean, it's reflected here. I see it.
Why come back to Mumbai? What do you love about Mumbai?
None of us are from Bombay.
-None of you? -[Sameer] Bombay is a melting pot.
If you wanted to push the boundaries of what Indian food could be,
this city would be the most accepting of it.
It is the spirit of the city that, if you live here for more than two years,
it gets under your skin.
And then you can't live anywhere in the world.
-Worth the effort. -[Pooja] Yes.
-Worth it. -[Phil] I get it.
-[Pooja laughs] -[Phil] What's this one?
[Hussain] My mom would scramble eggs in the morning with the meat curry
from the previous night and serve it with dosa.
My younger brother always got the piece of meat
that was left in the curry, and I never did.
He would take the bacon off my plate.
Let's not give him any of this.
Yeah. [laughs]
[Hussain] It's a beef tartare with a tamarind ponzu, a garlic puree,
and smoked egg yolks have been shaved on top of it.
-You had a good childhood. -I did. It was lovely.
Not too shabby.
I believe you've been to Trishna.
Our favorite combination there is butter, garlic, crab.
That was unbelievable.
[Sameer] That's butter, garlic, crab, and an egg on top because why not?
[laughter]
[Sameer] There is no reason.
-[Phil] This I can't wait. -[Pooja] Yeah.
-Mm! -[laughter]
-[humming with joy] -[laughter]
[Phil] I'm so happy. There's one more thing here.
Yeah.
[Sameer] There's a dish which is very famous, the dhokla,
usually made from chickpea flour.
And someone, while cooking it, made a mistake,
or a locho as they call it, ended up with a custard.
Richard was a locho.
[all laughing]
You're serious about that.
He definitely is paying for taking that piece of bacon.|
[laughs]
-Look at him go! -[Richard] No more for him.
Here, Richard. You'll need some crisps.
So, corn was in season when we heard that story,
so at the bottom, you've got a corn locho.
It's got a scallion chutney and aged pepper cheese,
and it's got corn crispies on top of all the bites.
[playful music playing]
Oh my God, there's a lot going on.
The texture, the crispiness and the softness underneath.
Texture is something Floyd used to talk about a lot.
What was amazing about being with Chef Floyd
was just his love to share the information he had over the years.
We wouldn't be where we are without him.
He went from being a boss, to a friend, to a mentor, to everything.
-That's great. -And...
And I think he's left his thought process in each one of us,
and we each interpret it in a different way on a different day.
And that's the beauty of it.
And you take the legacy forward.
Here's a nice thing. In memory of Floyd Cardoz's work,
they've started bottling his masalas, different spice mixes.
And for every jar they sell of these masalas,
a dollar goes to charity.
I have to say, you honor him.
[Sameer] Thank you.
I would like to keep honoring him.
-There you go. -There you go.
[gentle music playing]
[Phil] When I first got here,
maybe I was a little intimidated by all the people.
But now, not only do I not mind it,
there's kind of a thrill about it.
All these cultures living together, struggling together,
celebrating together is kind of what Mumbai is all about.
What makes it really nice is that every face you look at
is smiling back at you,
and these are some of the most beautiful smiles in the world.
Just a baby step out of my comfort zone, and this beautiful world was waiting.
I want to thank all my friends here, old and new, for showing me their Mumbai.
And I hope you all get to have this maximum experience too.
Mumbye!
[music ends]
[closing theme music playing]
♪ Come sit at his table ♪
♪ If you're happy, hungry Willing and able ♪
♪ To see how breaking bread Can turn a stranger right into a friend! ♪
♪ He will drive to you He will fly to you ♪
♪ He will sing for you And he'll dance for you! ♪
♪ He will laugh with you And he'll cry for you! ♪
♪ There's just one thing He asks in return! ♪
♪ Somebody feed, somebody feed Phil! ♪
♪ Somebody, somebody feed Phil! ♪
♪ Oh, please, somebody Somebody feed Phil! ♪
♪ Somebody feed him now! ♪