448: How a Hollywood Agent Eats So Very Well with Priyanka Mattoo

25:50And so they're like, well, one food show worked, so another food show will maybe work now. And again, they have also probably forgotten that it's really about the writing and the characters. So, yeah, I think any I think if you can make people fall in love with the characters, you cannot listen to what people want to buy. It has to be specific. Like if you have a specific, specific story to write, whether it's a family restaurant, whether it's like write this as specific as you can get, I think is is is against all messages you're getting from the buyer. But just that has been my through line.

26:20Everything I've sold has been weirdly specific. Yeah. And like having like a really lived in world that doesn't feel like it's done on a whiteboard. I mean, I feel culinary school needs to be tapped into. Yeah. To me, that specific like anxiety of starting culinary school into the stage idea, I feel like that to me needs to be unpacked. Listen, listeners who like writing, make one, make a show. That's a great idea. Be really fun. I feel like it's good. Just a really granular kind of like coming of age in culinary school. It'd be really nice. Right. And then some folks are like mid-career. Some folks are 18.

26:52And there's like definitely that different ages there. And, of course, once they get thrown into the real world, that enters a whole group of characters come into the show because there's like you're going into all these different other worlds that are. I also think it's like a period piece. Yeah. It's in the 90s. I'm not pitching you a show, Priyanka. I'm literally not pitching you a show. It's a great docuseries, too. I would love if done well. It could be a really good docuseries. I feel like the bottom fell out of docuseries and food. It really does. Like CNN canceled literally everything.

27:22I know. What's the future there? because we love these shows. Whenever you're on a plane, if you're like looking at the screen, you want to see the food show. Literally everyone is watching a food show on a plane. Shouldn't like guys, like executives, listen to this podcast, like make some more docuseries. Yeah, there should be more. I don't know. I think we're just seeing a very, very big correction across the board. So I think right now we're just, yeah, everything's crumbling. It's all going to reset. We're going to see what sprouts come out of the rubble, you know? What are you working on?

27:48Because I know you're like definitely working on shows and you've sold shows. I mean, this book has been in the can for a while, I'll see if I have been working on other projects. Yes. I sold a, I sold a, um, a couple of years ago, actually I sold a detective show to CBS about, uh, about an, uh, a queer Indian lady who lives with her parents. Awesome. Wow. I'm saying, I'm telling you guys be specific. Yeah. Be specific. So I read this like British mystery novel and she was kind of a, a secondary character. And I was like, I want to make her the center of a show. And so I pitched that idea to a, a producer.

28:23I love Jessica Rhodes who did like Station Eleven and she currently does Black Mirror she's wonderful and she's really good with books which is hard to come by and she was like let me call CBS I was like CBS isn't gonna buy it and they did like that week it was crazy and they love it and then we're it's been a really lovely experience so I wrote the first year I wrote a pilot and they loved it but it was like a little they were like can we just like rewrite it as like a more sort of CBS kind of case and so I'm co-writing of this year is crazy so I asked to co-write it with someone So I'm writing it with a wonderful woman named Dana Greenblatt.

28:53So we are working on that. But it's so fun. So the pilot is now being reworked on paper. You haven't shot anything yet. No. Then you go to shoot it eventually. Yeah. I think I can share this. I came really, really close to being made last year. Super close. It was like between me and another show. Fuck. But I agree with them that the case needed to be massaged a little bit. I love the script. I think it's a great script. But it just wasn't like it is fun to make it like I'd like the idea of making a little flashier, but keeping the same. And she has a fan like the character in the character I've written has her parents.

29:29She's from Queens. Who else wondering about that? Yeah. Her parents own like a grocery store, you know, family business. And she's and she's like a lady detective. Is she like a bibliophile who's like poured over like mystery books herself? And that's how she gets into the universe. Now she's bringing it to life. There is a, you know, she's peeking over her hair at the spy watching for shoplifters at her family's store. But she's queer and like CBS should put those characters on TV. I think they want to. Amazing. I think that's what, I think everything's moving in the right direction. That's exciting to have that.

30:02And how do you work on other projects? Do you have like your own, like your notes on your phone and you've got a bunch of different. Yeah, I do blocks, like time blocks. So right now everything's taken over with the book promo. But when I get back, I have to finish a feature script that I owe a rewrite on a feature script. And then I'm currently. Yeah, we're outlining the new case. So, yeah, I usually block off days and I go, this is what I'm working on. This is what I owe. This is my deadline. Yeah. What about the adaptation for Bird Milk and Mosquito Bones? Has that been picked up and optioned yet?

30:33Oh, I don't. It's that's a good question. I don't think it's adaptable. OK. Okay. As the agent of your own project, you're like passing on it as an adaptation. As the agent of my own project, I will say that in its entirety, I don't think it's adaptable and I don't think it should be. I think it's a book. However, pieces from it, because they're my life, always make their way into my work. So, for example, the feature I'm writing is really is based on a short film I made a few years ago, but it's really a romantic comedy about my parents. So if you read the chapter about my parents, the thing I say about my parents is that they're soulmates, but they won't admit it.

31:07And so I am writing a movie about an older couple staring down retirement. And now they have to like deal with deal with next 20, 30 plus years. Yeah. What did they say to you when they read that chapter? They just they're like, why is this funny? Oh, no. No, they love it. They're like, OK, they love it. It's their lives. They love it. They knew their daughter. They knew that was going to happen. It's such a celebration of that. Like they can't they might be like a little embarrassed because it's more attention than they're used to getting. But but I wrote it for them. I wrote it for my family.

31:38I love my family so much. They were just here for everyone was here for the event last night. So I just said goodbye to them this morning. They flew back. Your dad is a physician. And that was a big reason for you moving around a lot. Was he just taking posts? I know moving from Saudi Arabia to London or to England. I'm not sure if it was London. And it seems like that's a big jump. Yeah, it was. Sorry, it was like in Kashmir to England, to Saudi Arabia. So I don't know. My brain is scrambled. Yes, but he is very he's very invested in research. He's a medical, you know, he's an academic. Yeah.

32:13So there was a lot of there were a lot of research opportunities that kind of took him. He's a curious and very engaged man. And also like they my parents love to travel. They're never happier than when they're on a plane at an airport, having a McDonald's, like, you know, a train station. Like, that's, we're all like that. Often I'll text the family WhatsApp and we're in four different countries. That's just how it's always been. That's just the culture of your family. What's Saudi Arabia like when you're living there? It's like Palm Springs. Yeah. I've been there 15 times. I love Palm Springs.

32:47It's like Palm Springs. But back then was more, it's much more, you know, I think it's easier for women now. But we lived on a compound, which was an expat compound. So all bets were like, yeah, I could wear shorts. I could mix freely with boys. I could, I don't know, alcohol was permitted. But it was easy living. It was like living in a gated community in Palm Springs. Yeah. That's what it was like. What about food? What's your memories from food in Saudi Arabia? I mean, delicious food. Yeah. Lots of, obviously, like, amazing Saudi food. Grilled meats and shawarmas and delicious, like, fresh breads.

33:21And yeah, we were really, really lucky to be in. And plus like so many expat communities. So like Malaysian families and Filipina families and, and Filipina families and Indian Pakistani families. And every, I mean, everyone. On this compound, you were like getting a sense of community from. Yeah, because it was very dinner party culture, you know, so like not in a fancy way, but like we, we entertained at each other's houses. And it would be like a family hang with like whoever, you know, either a potluck or whoever was cooking. So we get to kind of taste. That's a great memory to have like, you know, all these different friends from different backgrounds together as a potluck.

33:56And then you end up in Ann Arbor as a 17 year old, world travel, worldly person. And you end up in like the Midwest at around the same time I was living there. Really? I think we're in similar. I graduated high school in 1998. I was 97. Yeah, I knew we were like very close. We literally had the exact same high school experience in the same part of the country. And wow, it must have been a number of emotions. But let me ask you, when you're growing up in Ann Arbor, what's it like with the food? Like, are you feeling like this is like so Midwestern industrial food? I actually, okay, I went to high school in suburban New York.

34:34That was a big culture shock because I just landed from this very, very cosmopolitan life in Saudi Arabia where everyone was like a diplomat's kid. Marble swimming pool. It was bizarre. It was a bizarre way to grow up. And then I landed in sort of suburban like Rockland County. That was a culture shock, although everyone was very kind. So I didn't have to deal with whatever like high school horrors people think I went through. That was like a sea of like mid-Italian food. I live in the neighboring county, Orange County, and I have to say it hasn't really changed. Yeah. So that was a landscape that I was not used to.

35:10Once I got to Ann Arbor, I mean, gosh, I loved it. I loved it. It's such a friendly town. It's such a happy place. I met the most wonderful people. And the food was like, you know, none of us had any money. So we'd go to Jerusalem Garden and had our falafel, you know. I loved the Fleetwood Diner. I love a diner. That's probably where my love of diners came from. Ann Arbor of all places. Well, just Michigan. I mean, the Greek diners everywhere. And then, yeah. And then Zingerman's is there. And Zingerman's. As like, you know, like in the 90s too, it's a really important time at Zingerman's because they're really, they're starting their mail order business.

35:44They're really starting to get a sense of this growing foodie culture, which Dina DeLuca starts in the early 90s in New York. And it's starting to expand. Places in LA are opening as well. But this like idea of like this food from around the world, the balsamics there. I mean, yeah, no one's selling balsamic like that. I think when I was in law school, so there were seven years. So when I was in law school, I lived basically right next door. And one of my roommates worked there. And I didn't have enough money to eat at Zingerman's, I'll be honest. It was quite expensive. It was the same way for me when I would visit, when I would drive over, it was like split the sandwich.

36:14But if someone's parents came to visit, we'd be like, should we go to Zingerman's? Should we all go to Zingerman's and buy a$16 sandwich? I mean, they're totally worth it. I just didn't have. They just didn't have. What about Ricks? Did you go to Ricks? Did I go to Rick's? Yes, I did. Yeah. I sure did. I went to Rick's a lot. You went to a lot? A lot. I love dancing. Yeah. And I was just like, I'm going to go get my top 40 fix. Those lights are going to come on at 2 a.m. There'll be a foam party there at some point. Yeah, it was gross and I loved it. So we grew up in the Midwest in the 90s and there was like an absolute dynamic of a dance club in the 90s.

36:51And it may probably be in other parts of the country, obviously. A different style of dancing. I don't think like 17-year-olds are dancing the way we used to dance. I danced every night. I know. It was so fun. It was fun. And all my guy friends from Michigan are the only men I know who were like, oh, I should go dance. You know, we were dancing all the time. All my friends were all DJs, like that ghostly crew, you know? So we were - Oh, cool. Yeah. That's a good crew. Wow. It was a great crew. Nice. Yeah. So if I wasn't dancing at Rick's, I was dancing in a warehouse downtown. Yeah. It was great fun.

37:18It all sounds bizarre to like people who weren't in that little culture because they're like, you were a raver. I'm like, I was not doing drugs, you guys. literally just dancing with my friends the malou of the era was rave culture was monoculture i mean like fat boy slim was the biggest music in the country yeah i know it's like very cringe big beat it is have you revisited big beat recently or ever that's a good question no i have not i think i just have closed that and it doesn't work for me anymore i think like the vocal sampling is is really really annoying to me yeah um i have revisited prodigy oh interesting as in the british prodigy not the great rapper from the Bronx uh or Harlem damn I almost got canceled there um but yeah what about what music were you into were you like Detroit techno obviously well I've always yeah I mean I've always loved a singer songwriter but yeah I loved I loved I was introduced to it was such a funny introduction to I feel like I Forrest Gumped my way through the scene but like but like yeah I knew Sam Valenti and Matt Deer and in college and so I just went wherever they were yeah and I was very lucky because they were really snobby about music but they set a really great scene for like a really fun weirdly wholesome party you know and they remain really good friends and they're super supportive of the book and they're so darling and and so i was really lucky to have like really good dance music to access all the time but then i also i love an italo disco i love like i love you know justice and daft punk i love like a french you know i love that um lcd sound system i do i love dance music i do i love really good dance yeah the goods and i feel like there's got to be a Daft Punk Justice, maybe Pharrell residency at the Sphere in Vegas.

38:57Oh, God. I'm just putting this out into the ether. Yeah. What do you think about that? I know that Justice is coming at the Hollywood Bowl. And when I did see Justice on their first tour, it was one of the greatest shows of my life. Yeah. One of my greatest shows was the Coney Island show, Daft Punk and Justice, opening in 2007. Oh, my God. So fun. Yeah. Yeah, really good era. I'm glad we're talking about dance music. We don't talk about it enough on this show. I could talk about it all. People think it's really funny that I listen to so much dance music, but I'm just like, it's such a mood lifter.

39:30Isn't Hot Chip like one of the greatest bands ever? So fun. Hot Chip has got such an album catalog. You know who I love right now? Do you listen to Rami? Rami? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So I love that album so much. It's good. My brother lives in London. He's seen her live like multiple times. I'm a little mad about it. I mean the Charlie album as we're dating this interview I gotta listen to it yeah it's like is it fun it's really really fun I liked some of her early work and I feel like it's hard to like it in our age where we have to snark on it because it's like the biggest thing and it's like but I love it it's great okay I'm gonna listen nice Indian girl I know exactly on this is Taste we asked guests about their discerning taste so to close this interview here's a little rapid fire fast and furious taste check my poor brain yeah are you ready I might be All right.

40:17The best fruit? Mangosteen. What makes it great when it's great? It has to be a little bit cold. And the texture is really, really good. It's like a lychee, but not annoying. And it's a little more acidic. Love the description. Cold fruit, very hard for me. Really? Shouldn't it be naturally the way it's... Isn't that the thought? It should, absolutely. But I think of this as, as an Indian person, I think of this as a hot weather eating situation. until like I want something that'll cool me down. I want something refreshing. But you're right. You're absolutely right. Like fruit should not be put in the fridge.

40:51But maybe put it on ice. I'm not against cold fruit. I think we eat too much cold fruit. Yeah. We chill all of our fruit in America. It's true. We put like literally all of our fruit in the fridge. No, but I agree. We don't put our fruit in the fridge at all. But when it is hot, cold fruit is such. I'm just thinking of a feeling. The worst vegetable. I wish I could. It feels so disloyal to say, but bitter melon. Yeah. I just hate it. I went to dinner with a bunch of food writers who I will not name because we're all ashamed. But we ordered the bitter melon because we knew our mothers would be proud.

41:22And then none of us ate. We each took one taste and we're like, absolutely not. Yeah. No. All right. The best dessert. Destroyer has a really good chocolate almond cookie. And when I have a craving for dessert, I drive to Destroyer in L.A. and I go get it. That's it for me. It's the only one. That's the one. I think of the same as the Wild Air caramel chocolate dessert. I've heard about this. Similarly, it's like you'll drive for just this dessert. Yeah. I'll drive for this specific feeling. Yeah. That's a great, great call. Your favorite American fast food chain? I mean, McDonald's. I love it.

41:57Yeah. I love, I love, I love their stupid chicken nuggets. I love their French fries. I love how happy they make my kids once a month, if they're allowed. Yeah. We go through the drive-thru once a month and it makes them so happy. It's a beautiful thing. Yeah. In the month of March, do you go Shamrock Shake? Oh, you know, we haven't done that yet. Big Michigan thing. Okay. No, I know. I remember. It was almost like a holiday in Michigan, the Shamrock Shake. All right. Maybe we'll get into that. We need to give them their Michigan food culture. We need to pass it down. Have you brought them back to Ann Arbor at all?

42:26Yes, they have. They have. They've been to Zingerman's. Yes. Oh, how fun. Your favorite L.A. restaurant right now? In the vein of the neighborhood restaurants, I really like this restaurant called Lonzo's. It's a Peruvian restaurant in like nowhere Culver City. And it's wonderful. The vibe is really nice. They have like a funny old man there playing guitar sometimes. It's really small. Yeah. It's BYOB. And that's just exactly the kind of, that's like the target. Culver City doesn't have like a ton going on in restaurants, right? No. There is that great like a sandwich. There's a deli. Do you know Jackson Market?

43:01Yeah, I do. Yeah, that place is great too. That's great. Your favorite non-LA California restaurant right now? Paul Bar in Palm Springs yeah I know I know you've been right I have and wow this is such this makes me extremely happy why because I love Paul Bar yeah I think it reminds me of New York but it's obviously not New York it reminds me of LA but it's obviously not LA it's like blacked out it's so cool the perfect restaurant it's kind of that and the crowd is obviously why we go there yeah it's like so great yeah oh my god and and they just the feeling we get there right and there might be a line out the door, but the feeling is very much like, grab a drink, we'll get you in.

43:41You know? And that's like such a, like hospitality is called hospitality for a reason. Yeah. You know what I mean? They will always give you a drink in line. The way I feel when I'm there is a feeling that I'm constantly chasing. And last time I was there, he was not actually there. Oh no. But his friend Jay was there. Jay and I struck up a conversation. Jay and I are now text friends because he's not on social media, but Jay's reading my book. He's doing great. But Jay Miles, who is awesome, made like all his money as like employee X, at like a tech unicorn and then moved to Palm Springs and now just kind of like manages the restaurant when or manages the bar when when he when like his buddy's out of town.

44:16And I'm just like, this is the best vibe. A favorite recent cookbook discovery. Melissa Clark has, well, first of all, her recipes on the app are just like astonishingly reliable. It doesn't even make sense. I'm like, what kind of insane mathematician brain does she have? and then they're just like made for me, a working mother because they are delicious and she has a one pot cookbook and that's always the dream it's like one pot food that isn't just like a slurry mess yeah, it's not just mush I think her book Dinner is one of my favorite books of all time really, really, I mean she's just, thank you for your service yeah, absolutely Melissa Clark a cuisine you would like to learn more about?

44:58i i have one i have both feet firmly in it but i love love love burmese food i love it so much it just like scratches so many itches all at the same time and we don't i'm not gonna say we have a dearth of burmese food in la because maybe i just don't know about it but um but there used to be like two restaurants now there's one that i know of and so i just make it at home you get the fermented tea leaves i do you know shipped to you and you can just well i get it from jasmine market, which is like, again, in Culver City. Yeah. Another Culver City restaurant. I don't mean to talk shit about Culver City.

45:31That was actually out of nowhere. I have nothing against Culver City. No, nobody knows anything about Culver City. But once you really start digging around, anywhere you go where there's like relatively cheap real estate, which it isn't really anymore, like you get good ethnic stuff, you know? So like that's where the Burmese market is. That's where the, you know, Rutz Hawaiian is. That's where it's like the edges of this place nobody thinks about is where the good stuff is, I think. Do you go to Sautel anymore? Is there anything good on Sautel? It seems like it's been built up so much. It has been built up.

45:58You know, it's still good. I mean, the noodles are, you know, some good ramen. Good ramen. Yeah. But we have a mitsua right near us. So if I go to an Asian market, it's that mitsua. It's all that one. Yeah. Last one, your favorite sandwich. Oh, there was a sandwich. Oh, it's so sad. There was a really good sandwich during the pandemic. And I think the shop closed called, maybe someone can help me find it. But there was a store called Heroic Italian. Did you know about this? No, I don't. Heroic Italian, what a name. right and they just delivered sandwiches during the pandemic and they had this like sort of variation on like a traditional italian sandwich on this like really good crusty bread but with um with roasted cherry tomatoes and burrata and then like all the meats and all the spreads yeah and it was a perfect sandwich and i miss it and i don't know what happened to it heroic sandwich comeback heroic sandwich where are you man are you available somewhere else would you give me You must be.

46:47Write in. Write Priyanka. Write her. Tell me. Tell her. Priyanka Mathieu. This has been so much fun. Thank you so much for joining us. This is Taste.

47:05Hi, Matt. Welcome back from India. What's up, Eliza? It's great to see you. I'm stoked to hear all about your trip. I'm very jealous. It was an amazing trip. Thank you for asking. I want to share a little bit about it. I was traveling with Marijuana Rani, who's a good friend of mine. He's the chef at the restaurant Chai Pani in Asheville, North Carolina. He's got a location in Decatur, Georgia. He's got a spot in Washington, D.C. He's kind of moving up the East Coast, maybe going to be in New York pretty soon. He also does these restaurants called Botiwala. But Marijuana and I have been buddies for a long time, and he takes his staff to India a couple times a year.

47:39And he's always been like, Matt, you should come. And I'm like, okay, we happen to kind of connect over his new cookbook that he's going to be publishing with 10 Speed Press in a couple of years. So I was there to kind of help out with the photography. I'm writing a magazine story as well. So I'm with Marwan. I'm with his partner in crime, Mikey Files, who's the creative director. I'm with this amazing photographer named Poris Chowdhury. And, man, we are traveling around India in the coolest way. I want to share all about it. Yeah, I'd love to know where you went in India. Were you in just one specific region?

48:16We were traveling. We started in Mumbai, then went off to Pune, and then we went off to Aganagar. So we were in this kind of like triangle, about six hours between the cities. Relatively speaking, a small part of India. But Mumbai is a commercial center on the West Coast. So I spent a lot of time there. And really, it was a life-changing trip in many ways. when you get to go to origin a place you know where food is is created that I am familiar with in the states but I'm not familiar with origin it's always such a an eye-opening experience and this is no no different and it was during monsoon season which was intense it was raining all the time just constant rain yeah every day would rain like five to seven to twelve to fourteen to maybe even twenty hours depending on the day but it wasn't just about it raining it was the intensity the rain.

49:07But it was cool because like the photos will will reflect this like very moody time of year. There's monsoon foods that we discovered. But I'd like to go over some of the highlights, a couple of the restaurants I visited in markets and spaces just to share. Yeah, I would love to hear. I'm taking notes. The first place I want to mention is Sritakar Bojnali. It is in Mumbai and it's been open since It's 1945. And they are known for thali, these still bowls that hold all sorts of things like dals and rices and chutneys and breads. And what was cool about this meal is it was Gujarati, which is a little bit north of Mumbai where we were by about, you know, six, eight hours.

49:52But vegetarian meal. And I was struck by how the dals and the farcans of the curries and samosas and the plates of rotis and puris and bakaris were so – like each one was individually made in a way that it felt like a tasting menu. It felt like I was at Alinea. It felt like I was at EMP. And it was remarkable. It was$35. and it really opened my mind to how vegetarian Indian cuisine is presented and it's such a highlight. Okay, where else did you go that you would want to go back to? Well, in Pune, I kind of got to know this dish of vatapav. Are you familiar with it? Vatapav, vatapav? I've been wanting to eat this because I've seen it on Instagram, but I have not had it before.

50:41It's kind of like a potato bread sandwich, right? Exactly. It's a fried potato fritter seasoned with all sorts of great seasonings. And in between Pau, which is the light fluffy bread that's known throughout the Maharashtra state where Pune in Mumbai is, and, you know, slathered with chutneys and raw onions and cilantro. And the place that I went to was Garden Vatapap Center in the middle of Pune. And it's a place that over the years has grown such a following. And I just, there's lines of people starting at nine in the morning. We walked by a few times throughout the day. Always was a line. And really, it's such a cool dish because it's like Portuguese bread and like fried potatoes and clearly Indian spices.

51:28And I just, I love anything squishy. Yeah. And you get squished and you get this great potato roll. I love it. It's such a great dish. I love whenever potato is encased in some kind of carb and just kind of really doubles down in that way. Like I love a potato taco for a similar reason. Totally agree. Eat carb on carb, underrated. Elite. You just can't think about it. Like sometimes it's like doesn't feel right, but just don't think about it. Let it roll. Eat the carb on carb. Oh, I would say it feels very right. Thank you. Where else did you go? Permission to. Also in Pune, we of course had chai and there's like all sorts of different chais.

51:59There's chai masala, which is like the kind of rougher day-to-day chais. There's Arani chai, which is – throughout the Parsi tradition, it's chai that is made with buffalo milk. and really it's one of my favorite types of chai and it's very rich. But we went to Cafe Yazdan, which is a Parsi cafe in the middle of Puna and we had masala chai, but we had this rolled omelet that was really cool that omelets are part of cafe culture in the Parsi tradition and so great. When you say rolled, what is it? The omelet itself is rolled or is it rolled up in something? Yeah, it's just, it's like a very thin omelet that's been rolled and folded and, you know, they use a little bit of green chili and a little bit of Kashmiri dried chili and a little bit of like salt and pepper.

52:47And it's a way like pairing omelets with chai. I never really thought of an omelet as something that would be so spiced. But like having all these chilies and having all the chai notes around it, it's like such a perfect pairing. I loved it. I can imagine that being really good. Is there anything else you want to shout out? Yeah, I want to call out one other place that is in Mumbai called the Parsi Dairy Farm. And it is a dessert shop. And I'll definitely be writing about this in my forthcoming profile. It's kind of changed the way I think about Indian desserts because I didn't have much experience.

53:25I've had a Jollibee before. And like the Jollibee there was really, really cool. It was made of yogurt curd, quite acidic and sweet. nicely balanced, not just like sugary. And, you know, that's a dish that's like deep fried dough that's blended with yogurt. And you see it's like those like little twisty, beautiful fried. And very glazed and kind of sticky and delicious. Exactly. It's very glazed. But I would say that the best thing there was the buffalo yogurt lassi. So when you get buffalo, water buffalo milk integrated or yogurt integrated into a lassi, a mango lassi, it's like really cool. Because like I think the dairy in India is – it's different for sure.

54:09It's, you know, it's mostly buffalo, water buffalo and goat and sheep. And I just loved – I loved the way it was integrated into the food, into the culture, pun intended. And I loved this lassi because I was like wanting a lassi. I was like, man, I got to try a lassi in India. And this was like the best one I've ever had. So it completed this goal of mine. Well, I'm glad you got to have it. I feel like listening to you run through these, one of the most notable things is this water buffalo dairy, which is not something I think I've had before. So now I'm extra intrigued to go and try it. Yeah, it was such a great trip.

54:45And I can't wait to share more of it in future episodes. Marilyn's going to be on the show and we'll talk about it more then. But thanks a lot for asking. Yeah, thanks for telling me all about it.

54:57This is Taste is hosted by Eliza Abarbanel and me, Matt Rodbar. The show is produced by Shalia Harris and Pat Stango and edited by Clayton Gumbert. Theme music by Steve Rydell. Visit Taste online at tastecooking.com and make sure to subscribe to our newsletter for updates on all cool things that are happening.