, chances are you have a strange creature that identifies as a “foodie” in your life.  If your food fanatic has every kitchen gadget, cook book, spice blend and truffle paste available, never fear we’ve got you covered! Consider gifting your grub-loving pal with one of the great foodie flicks we’ll be profiling on Biff Bam Pop for the next few weeks! Hey, the holidays are all about spending time with loved ones and celebrating whatever you happen to celebrate, but they’re also all about food too am I right?! I first discovered  Like Water For Chocolate as a book written by Mexican novelist Laura Esquival.  The novel is both a love story and a recipe book – each chapter headed by increasingly more delicious sounding recipes.  I’ve read it about 30 times and every single time I tell myself that I’ll try making one of the dishes in the book – but I haven’t yet! Maybe a new 2012 Resolution for me? Born in the kitchen of her family home, Tita is brought into the world amidst the comforting scents and warmth of food.  

Her childhood is full of love and cooking lessons from the beloved family maid Nacha and she grows to become a wonderful cook. When young Tita first encounters Pedro it’s love at first sight. Forbidden from being together, Pedro marries Tita’s older sister Esperanza in an effort to remain close to Tita. As the youngest daughter, Tita is bound by tradition to stay unwed in the family home, caring for her cruel mother, her sisters and her new brother in law until her mother’s death.  In spite of this, Tita communicates her feelings for Pedro in the only way she can – through her cooking.  This often results in magical consequences as Tita pours all of her emotions into each finely-crafted dish. As much as I loved the novel, I have to be honest and admit that I didn’t love the movie…as much. Perhaps this is because the actors and characters on the screen didn’t measure up to what I’d imagined in my head because it’s still an excellent film. The story is compelling, it’s won many awards and the food imagery in it is breathtaking.

This scene involving Tita’s preparation of “Quail in Rose Petal Sauce” is a spicy example of some of the “consequences” of Tita’s cooking in the film:jogo sushi cat honeymoon I apologize for the horrible voice overs. sushi grade fish southamptonIf you do end up watching this film, do yourself a favour and use the original audio with subtitles – I just can’t take english voice overs seriously!jiro dreams of sushi mf Like Water For Chocolate is a fun, moving (and delicious) flick for the adventurous and romantic foodie film-lover in your life. As an excellent addition to this gift I suggest the novel, and maybe some spicy Mexican chocolate from your local gourmet shop. If you’re lucky maybe your foodie will even whip you up some Rose Petal Quail of your very own!

You can purchase Like Water for Chocolate on dvd and in novel form on amazon.ca. Don’t forget to check back for more Food Porn: movies for the Foodie in your life next week! Last week’s post: Waitress.Mainstream Bollywood always surprises us. Just when we think we have it pegged, it turns around and kicks us in the butt, saying, "Shut up, PPCC." People all over the world, join hands! Start a love train! As unenlightened and regressive as the shiny, new Devdas was, it's ironic that we should find something quirky and forward-looking from way back in 1977. But apparently 1977 was a good year: Amitabh Bachchan was on top of his very tall, gangly game, and Star Wars had just been released. Parvarish was also released, a crazy double-triple-identity cops 'n robbers comedy that shouts from the hilltops, "Girl power!" It's also clearly the inspiration for all of the jokes in Austin Powers. If you're familiar with 1970s Bollywood, you'll be familiar with several plot points.

There are two brothers - one is good, one is bad. One is also the adopted son (Amitabh Bachchan) of a bandit (Amjan Khan), and the other one is the natural son (Vinod Khanna) of the police officer (Shammi Kapoor). Obviously, the sons grow up to switch roles: with the bandit-son becoming a policeman like his adopted father, and the policeman-son becoming a criminal. They both have pickpocket girlfriends (Shabana Azmi, Neetu Singh), ironically sisters who sing and dance and prosletyze a form of hilarious anarcho-communism where what's yours is mine and what's mine is also mine. The two sons don't realize they're fighting each other, but eventually they do and things are tense (fistfights ensue), but then everyone is reconciled in the end (even the bandit) into one big, happy family. Naturally, we end with a Punjabi wedding. On the way, there are several musical interjections, as well as chase scenes, back flips, hashish stuffed into a teddy bear, and a toy submarine that keeps blowing holes.

But first, the STARS! Amitabh Bachchan as GOOD COP! Vinod Khanna as CRIMINAL BRO! (I kill you with this plastic pineapple!) Shabana Azmi as WHAT AM I DOING IN THIS FILM?! Neetu Singh as QAWWALI ASSASSIN! Shammi Kapoor and Indrani Mukherjee as PROUD PARENTS! Amjad Khan as DR. EVIL, featuring THE GO-GO DANCERS! ...with a special guest appearance by SUPREMO. (yes, that's really his name) Unlike Kasme Vaade, this didn't touch our heart in a special way. This was just silly, silly fluff. It's also not like Don, which managed to combine all the trappings of the hilarious cops 'n robbers double identity genre with big heart as well. And it's almost proto-feminist, which is kinda awesome in it's own right. Oh, the joys of being a free woman! We say it's proto-feminist because the two pickpocket sisters are by far the most assertive, empowered, awesome ladies we have seen in a Bollywood movie. No coy batting of the eyelashes for them, no sir, these two rock out on the streets of Mumbai to slip the watches off of unsuspecting businessmen's wrists.

And THEY ask the respective brothers out, and THEY propose marriage to the brothers' parents, and basically they just save the day while Amitabh and his bro look on in slack-jawed silence. This is such a relief after the pain of Devdas, where the women were basically tearful,100% passive non-entities. The girls beat us. One of the best songs in the film is when the sisters don't quite garner the passionate reactions they were expecting from their respective boyfriends after the marriage proposal, and so they go to a bridge and threaten suicide. The brothers ride in on motorcycles, singing for them to stop, and then, as soon as the girls step into their arms, the brothers begin to tease them, inviting them to, "Jump! The song then continues from various suicide attempt to suicide attempt, with the brothers always riding their motorcycles close behind. Our favorite bit was on the train tracks: "The train doesn't come for two hours. Oh, we may as well go./No, no, it's a nice day, why not stay a while?"

But there really is too much in this film to mention. We laughed and laughed, it really must be seen. Why isn't Shah Rukh Khan making stuff like this? Here's another song, where good cop Amitabh is pretending blindness to catch his criminal brother in the act. Criminal brother, meanwhile, is trying pass off plastic rhinestones as diamonds. Oh yeah, and there's a bit where Amitabh wears a funny disguise and sings a kinky song with his girlfriend while still wearing it. He's at the Holiday Inn, passing himself off as a tourist. This is so awesome. Regarding Shabana Azmi's presence: we always feel a little strange when our Parallel Cinema heroes feature in Mainstream Bollywood flicks. While Naseer has shown he can shake his booty with the best of 'em, he's always been a bit resigned to the role of the dopey guy when it comes to outrageously Bollywood song-and-dance scenes. Smita Patil has fared a bit better, but we'll admit it's just weird seeing her spin around with Amitabh Bachchan, who we always suspect as not actually being real.