If you are a regular TV surfer, the chance of you not hitting Highway On My Plate (HOMP) on NDTV Good Times is very very less. And if you belong to this minority, let me explain what is HOMP. Evident from the title, it is a travel cum food show. The program is hosted by two witty and burly gaurmets named Rocky and Mayur. These guys travel to nook and corner of the country tasting yummy local cuisines in hotels, dhabas, chat streets, bakeries and less likely in star hotels. Basically their quest is, interesting Desi cuisines across India. In the just finished first season of the show, Rocky and Mayur have tasted various dishes from Idlis of Murugan Hotel in Chennai to Tunda kebabs of Lucknow. The show is currently running the successful second season where Rocky and Mayur have gone to phoren to taste the exotic cuisines. Usually in each of the episodes, they travel to a new destination where they cover 2-3 famous hotels. After belting, they neatly lick their fingers and then rate the taste, ambience, service of the hotels. In most of the hotels, they even engage the owners, cooks of the hotels in hearty conversation, where they try to share the information with the viewers about how some special dishes are prepared.
As a matter of fact, I see lot of travel cum food shows. 'Around the world in 85 plates' - hosted by one named Magandeep Singh in NDTV GT again, The Foodie in Times Now, Chak Le India etc etc. But what makes me feel great about this show is the witty one liners Rocky and Mayur deliver spontaneously. I dont think all of those are scripted, in which case they must be good actors and I know they are not. Rocky and Mayur having known each other for 32 years(!!) share a great chemistry on screen. It is quite weird that Mayur being a hard core vegetarian, is one of the hosts of such a show. When both of them get to visit hotels best known for non veg food, Mayur does all the talking about the place, about the ambiance, about the history of the place etc etc but food. Rocky after belting the non-veg, comments on the taste later. On any given day (episode?), both of them keep pulling each others legs, mostly Mayur ending up in the receiving end when it comes to taunts of Rocky about what all Mayur is missing in life by being a vegetarian. It is a great treat to watch them together. Rocky blogs about some of his experiences during the shoot of the show in his blog. Do read to know the pain of being a food show anchor and some serious side of him which you do not get to see while he is hosting the show.
Some of my favorite one liners that I remember right now, cracked either by Rocky or Mayur are - "The closest thing to my heart is my stomach", "Eat till you fall asleep, sleep till you wake up of hunger". What else can you expect from the guys, whose basic mantra in life is 'eat and let eat'. Ohh.. by the way, never miss the faltu food quote at the end of every episode that Rocky and Mayur utter in unison, punching in for-the-sake-of-rhyming words, that never fails to bring a smile on your face, no matter how silly or stupid they sound :)
As a matter of fact, I see lot of travel cum food shows. 'Around the world in 85 plates' - hosted by one named Magandeep Singh in NDTV GT again, The Foodie in Times Now, Chak Le India etc etc. But what makes me feel great about this show is the witty one liners Rocky and Mayur deliver spontaneously. I dont think all of those are scripted, in which case they must be good actors and I know they are not. Rocky and Mayur having known each other for 32 years(!!) share a great chemistry on screen. It is quite weird that Mayur being a hard core vegetarian, is one of the hosts of such a show. When both of them get to visit hotels best known for non veg food, Mayur does all the talking about the place, about the ambiance, about the history of the place etc etc but food. Rocky after belting the non-veg, comments on the taste later. On any given day (episode?), both of them keep pulling each others legs, mostly Mayur ending up in the receiving end when it comes to taunts of Rocky about what all Mayur is missing in life by being a vegetarian. It is a great treat to watch them together. Rocky blogs about some of his experiences during the shoot of the show in his blog. Do read to know the pain of being a food show anchor and some serious side of him which you do not get to see while he is hosting the show.
Some of my favorite one liners that I remember right now, cracked either by Rocky or Mayur are - "The closest thing to my heart is my stomach", "Eat till you fall asleep, sleep till you wake up of hunger". What else can you expect from the guys, whose basic mantra in life is 'eat and let eat'. Ohh.. by the way, never miss the faltu food quote at the end of every episode that Rocky and Mayur utter in unison, punching in for-the-sake-of-rhyming words, that never fails to bring a smile on your face, no matter how silly or stupid they sound :)
Dude, we seriously share the same passions! Any food show on TV, be it preparing veg or non-veg, I would have tuned in, if i find it while surfing the channels.
Love the chak-le India show where he has his mouth watering while preparing the dishes, and HOMP for the food quotes and the various places and the way they hog.. This actually brought me to think about the twEATup! :)
@Suksy,
Maga, I bet you wont miss Nigella Lawson's show on Discovery Travel & Living ;)
Yeah.. only once I came for the Tweatup, I ll surely join next time..
This blog reminds me of our own rocky-mayur trip to huliyurdurga and the road side dosas and idlis that we relished. Not to forget the chapati-sagu lunch. i can still feel the taste in my spit. ;)
-'Deva'
@Deva aka Anonymous aka JP!,
Yeah.. that was a really adventurous but delightful food we had there :)