Sampling Asia

Pablo Naranjo Agular uses a selfie stick to shoot in Kuala Lumpur

When he arrived in Solo, Indonesia, earlier this week, chef Pablo Naranjo Agular took a taxi from the airport to his destination. While on his way there, he struck up a conversation with the driver and revealed that he's a chef. They continued chatting and after a bit, the cabbie stopped the car and told Agular, "Give me two minutes." He then went into a shop and came out with a steamed banana cake wrapped in a leaf. The driver gave it to the passenger and said, "Welcome to Solo. This is a traditional snack from here; why don't you try it?" Agular did, and they kept driving. And when it was time to pay and he asked how much it was for the cake, the driver told him not to worry about it. The cake was a gift from a local to a new visitor in his city.

It's this milk of human kindness that Agular has tasted everywhere he's gone so far to shoot for his new web show, Eating Around with Pablo. The places he's thus visited include Malaysia, Singapore, Macao and Indonesia. He narrates another incident, this one in Malaysia, to emphasise how welcoming the people in each country have been. Agular's car had broken down on his way back to the hotel after a rather eventful trip to a beach (we'll get to that later). People stopped to help him out and despite a language barrier, made him understand that there's an issue with the radiator and he needed to fill water in it. The car managed to start after that, though it still needed some work to be done. But the repairman he found told Agular that he was off duty that day. The chef explained the urgency to him and made a request. And the man then acquiesced, opened the shutters to his shop, and did the job that was required to help a foreigner in need.

A Mumbai flavour

So in a world that's rife with perceived negativity, Agular tells us that everyone's been unexpectedly helpful at every turn on his travels. But the seeds of the show were sowed right here in the city. This is where the chef spent three years practising his trade in a Colaba café. His last days in Mumbai, in fact, are the subject of the first three episodes that released just days ago. In them, the Colombian national gives viewers a foreigner's perspective on the butter overload at Tardeo's iconic Sardar Pav Bhaji, the oasis of peace that Banganga Tank in Walkeshwar is right in the middle of a hectic city, and how honking is more a way of life than a necessity. He tells us, "India will always remain a wonderful, chaotic dream for me. It's structured in a way I don't understand. But it works. And that makes you question yourself. If you look at a foreign country only through the lens of the structure you understand, then your worldview is myopic. I remember telling my father that landing in India was like landing on Mars. But three years of growth here have made me more accepting and less judgmental."

He also says, however, that while he was in the country, he didn't pay too much attention to the rest of the continent. Asian food is one of his obsessions. But his knowledge about it was limited. So he decided to take a year off to travel before returning home to Colombia ("My home right now is a suitcase," he says) and that's when the idea for this web show came about. Agular thus did the necessary homework. He got a small team together. Finances were also sorted out. And the chef finally took off a month and a half ago with Swaraj Srivastav, a young filmmaker who's helping him shoot the series.

Muddy waters
Now, he's looking to add to the adventures he's already had. These include the aforementioned trip to the beach. What happened is that Agular was on his way to one near Kuala Lumpur, recommended on the Internet. But when he reached there, he found out that it was, in his own words, "sh't". He says, "So we made our way to another beach that was filled with rocks. I climbed one of them and when I landed on the other side, I found myself stuck in two feet of mud and clay. I had to be dragged out to escape. But my slippers got stuck in the mud. I then had to sink my hands deep in to retrieve them. And I'll never forget the sense of achievement I felt when I finally managed to do it."
The point is, travel is such an enriching experience that you don't really have to reach the stars for it to be fulfilling. There's a feeling of satisfaction even if you wind up with a handful of mud, quite literally.

The chef with a 20-kg tuna at Sassoon Dock in Mumbai

Snap judgment

In the three episodes that are already out, Agular comes across as someone who's clearly a bit of a newbie when it comes to hosting food-themed travel shows. But that's not a bad thing. It gives him an endearing quality since he stays true to who he is. Such that he seems like an amiable person even when he's being sarcastic. The videos are short (possibly because those no longer than 10 minutes get more traction on YouTube). But he still manages to cover subjects that are sometimes straightforward - such as what goes into a vada pav - and sometimes revealing, like how the fishermen in Sassoon Dock harbour certain superstitions. A word needs to also be said here about Swaraj Srivastav's camera work. The visuals are beautiful and the editing is slick despite its DIY aesthetic (there is a point when the subtitles include an apology when there is a slight microphone malfunction). So while there is still room for improvement, the entire series seems to be heading in a positive direction.

Rating: 3/5

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