[Mindy Kaling] I don't wanna suffer the consequences
of our future president not liking my Indian food.
[Kamala Harris] Can I just tell you something?
[Mindy Kaling] Yeah. [Kamala Harris] I've never made dosas.
(mellow drum beat)
(laughing)
[Kamala Harris] Hi. [Mindy Kaling] Hi.
I love that you're coming through the kitchen already,
like you live here. [Kamala Harris] Of course I'm coming
through the kitchen,
that's what we do. [Mindy Kaling] This is so nice.
Are you stressed we're making Indian food?
[Kamala Harris] Oh my God, you do have the Taster's Choice.
Oh my, you have no idea,
this is how my mother kept all of her stuff.
[Mindy Kaling] This is so funny, I told my dad,
I was bringing over this stuff from the store.
He's like, obviously, I put them in Taster's Choice--
[Kamala Harris] But this literally was how my mother
kept of all of this stuff.
[Mindy Kaling] That's so funny.
[Kamala Harris] What is that?
[Mindy Kaling] Did they tell each other
about it? [Kamala Harris] I don't know.
(mellow drum music)
[Narrator] Taster's Choice.
[Mindy Kaling] Hi guys, it's Mindy, I'm here in my kitchen
and today, we are cooking but we have
a very special guest, very special.
Senator Kamala Harris.
[Kamala Harris] Hi guys.
[Mindy Kaling] Wait, so here's what I wanna know.
[Kamala Harris] Okay.
[Mindy Kaling] Is it respectful to call,
I should be calling you Senator Harris,
right? [Kamala Harris] No, you should not,
that's not on my birth certificate.
[Mindy Kaling] Okay, Kamala? [Kamala Harris] Call me, yes, please.
[Mindy Kaling] Okay, because the Indian in me,
I feel like my parents, my dad, will watch this.
[Kamala Harris] Just don't call me auntie.
[Mindy Kaling] Okay.
(laughing)
I won't call you auntie.
They'll be like, how could you call her by her first name?
She's worked so hard.
Okay, so what we're gonna cook today.
[Kamala Harris] Okay. [Mindy Kaling] Is an Indian recipe.
[Kamala Harris] Yes.
[Mindy Kaling] Because you are Indian. [Kamala Harris] Yes, yes, yes.
[Mindy Kaling] Okay and I don't know that everybody knows that.
But I find that wherever I go and I see Indian people
at the supermarket, on the street,
everyone's like, "you know Kamala Harris is Indian, right?"
It's like our thing we're so excited about
to have you running for president.
[Kamala Harris] Yeah. [Mindy Kaling] So we're both Indian.
[Kamala Harris] Yes. [Mindy Kaling] But actually,
we're both South Indian.
[Kamala Harris] Yes, you look like the entire one half of my family.
[Mindy Kaling] Okay, thank you. [Kamala Harris] You do.
You do. [Mindy Kaling] I've been telling people
we're related already so this is perfect.
It's basically true. (laughing)
And so we're you raised eating South Indian food?
[Kamala Harris] South Indian food, lots of rice and yogurt,
potato curry, dal, lots of dal, idli.
[Mindy Kaling] Yes, idli.
That's a deep cut.
Okay, so what we're cooking today is two things.
One of the South Indian staples is dosa,
which is kind of like a sourdough crepe.
And then we're gonna make a potato curry
which is the traditional accompaniment.
So I printed out, so-- [Kamala Harris] Where did you
get this recipe? [Mindy Kaling] We're doing it
the old fashioned way, which is,
I printed out a recipe from the internet.
[Kamala Harris] Okay, I'm ready.
[Mindy Kaling] Okay, so when I told my dad
that I was gonna be cooking South Indian food for you--
[Mindy Kaling] Yes. [Mindy Kaling] He was extremely excited.
He said I shall get some spices.
But he took them all, all the Indian spices
and he put them in-- [Kamala Harris] In the Taster's Choice jars.
And this is exactly what my mother would do.
So when I walked in and saw this,
literally, I didn't know it was actually a thing
among our people. [Mindy Kaling] I guess it's
an Indian thing. [Kamala Harris] It apparently is a thing.
[Mindy Kaling] Okay, cool, so this is all of the spices we're gonna use,
courtesy of my dad. [Kamala Harris] Okay.
[Mindy Kaling] And then, dosas take a really long time
to make the batter. [Kamala Harris] Yes.
[Mindy Kaling] So what we have is this great company,
this Indian company actually, makes ready-to-make.
You can get it at the Indian store.
[Kamala Harris] Okay. [Mindy Kaling] So we're busy,
it's dripping. [Kamala Harris] Yeah.
[Mindy Kaling] Which is-- [Kamala Harris] Oh yeah, it's dripping.
Okay. (drum roll music)
So, South Indian's, it's vegetarian.
It's all vegetarian.
So when we were growing up and we'd go to India
and my grandfather was a little mischievous.
So my grandmother, of course, was strictly no, nothing,
if it had a mother, it was not getting eaten.
And if my grandmother would go out of town,
my grandfather would then, he'd get very mischievous
and he'd say, "okay, let's have French toast."
(laughing)
Because, of course,
that has eggs. [Mindy Kaling] 'Cause it has in eggs.
So, when I would go and visit my family,
obviously, no meat.
Even the dog-- [Kamala Harris] No, no, no, no.
Right, rice and yogurt. [Mindy Kaling] Rice and yogurt, yeah.
[Kamala Harris] Oh yeah. [Mindy Kaling] The dog would eat rice--
[Kamala Harris] Oh yeah.
[Mindy Kaling] The dog would like the rice and yogurt.
[Kamala Harris] Yeah, no. [Mindy Kaling] Very good Hindu vegetarians.
But then I would get older cool cousins
who would take me out on their motorcycles
and we would go get, we would all split a lamb burger
'cause fast food. [Kamala Harris] Right, it was like a prank,
right, right. [Mindy Kaling] With like, no beef
or anything, obviously but we would have lamb burger.
And then we couldn't tell any of our grandparents about it.
[Kamala Harris] Okay. [Mindy Kaling] That's a fine chop.
[Kamala Harris] Right. [Mindy Kaling] Okay, Senator Harris,
I say this with respect, you're kind of a show off.
(laughing)
It's like, meanwhile it's taking me
20 minutes to do this much ginger.
Okay, what can't she do?
You got my vote.
So your mom worked and my mom worked, but my mom also--
[Kamala Harris] I know, your mother was a doctor.
[Mindy Kaling] Well, interesting thing about Indian women
of a certain generation, is you had to do both.
[Kamala Harris] Yeah, oh yeah. [Mindy Kaling] Right.
Like my mom would wake up at five in the morning
before she went to the hospital to see patients
and she would cook food for the whole week.
[Kamala Harris] Oh yeah, mommy did that too.
[Mindy Kaling] And so some food that was cooked,
dinner food was cooked at 6:00 a.m.
And then she would leave
and then all of our food was cooked.
And we, of course, didn't understand,
we're like, we wanna go to McDonald's,
but there is a four course Indian meal
for us even if she wasn't there to eat it with us.
And it was that kind of a thing
that was completely normal when you're the children
of professional immigrants.
[Kamala Harris] Listen, this is how it was,
because we would often come home from school
before our mother would come home from work.
And there was always fresh baked cookies.
[Mindy Kaling] No.
[Kamala Harris] Always, always, always.
[Mindy Kaling] Oh my God.
[Kamala Harris] So all of that stuff, everything was from scratch.
And this is why maybe I've become,
hopefully, not a snob about food--
[Mindy Kaling] Someone who could cut up onions like that,
like we're on a cooking show. [Kamala Harris] But I take it
very seriously. [Mindy Kaling] Yeah.
Listen, this is controversial,
I put peas and cashews in mine.
Yay or nay? [Kamala Harris] I noticed that.
That,
you know, I mean--
[Mindy Kaling] Okay, all right. [Kamala Harris] It's fine.
You could do it-- [Mindy Kaling] Your silence
was very damning. [Kamala Harris] Yeah, (laughs).
[Mindy Kaling] I knew what you wanted to do.
[Kamala Harris] No, but you know what, I wanna try it.
Go on, go for it.
[Mindy Kaling] No, because I don't wanna suffer the consequences
of our future president not liking my Indian food.
So why don't I just,
we'll just play it safe? [Kamala Harris] Okay, put a couple in.
Just put a couple in.
Can I just tell you something?
[Mindy Kaling] Yeah. [Kamala Harris] I've never made dosas.
[Mindy Kaling] Okay, but you're really good about critiquing them.
Great. (laughing)
This is gonna be great for me.
All right, so let's get to the cooking part of it.
I always use too much oil.
I'm often surprised when I make things from scratch.
[Kamala Harris] Right. [Mindy Kaling] This is why I needed
a U.S. Senator to witness me do it.
(laughing)
[Kamala Harris] You are doing such a good job.
(onions sizzling)
How old were your parents when they came over?
[Mindy Kaling] My parents were, I think, almost maybe late 20s,
like 28, 29, 30 [Kamala Harris] Oh really?
Yeah. [Mindy Kaling] Yeah.
[Kamala Harris] See, my mother came when she was 19.
[Mindy Kaling] Wow.
[Kamala Harris] By herself.
[Mindy Kaling] No way, wow.
[Kamala Harris] My grandfather was very progressive
and she wanted to study science.
[Mindy Kaling] My mother's father was the same way.
[Kamala Harris] And you know this is the thing that's really interesting
because people have these stereotypes
and actually, misconceptions, about who Indians are.
I mean, at least I can speak about my own experience
and you have a similar experience, it sounds like,
where, you know, my grandfather was very progressive.
Like, his daughter wanted to go and do that
and he was like, go ahead.
[Mindy Kaling] I think this is done. [Kamala Harris] I think so too.
[Mindy Kaling] And I think that we could move on to dosa.
[Kamala Harris] Okay. [Mindy Kaling] Here's my pre-made dosa mix
that thousands of Indian women around the world
are gasping that I'm using.
I'm just gonna put some oil in the pan.
[Kamala Harris] Okay. [Mindy Kaling] Now would your family,
would they do the thing
where they took the paper towel and spread it around?
Or did they just leave it
like this? [Kamala Harris] Oh yeah, yeah.
[Mindy Kaling] I just wanna let you know
that I'm really stressed about doing this since you're--
(laughing)
[Kamala Harris] Okay, can I just tell you,
I'm in awe that this is happening at all
in a real kitchen in front of me.
Look at how gorgeous that is,
you're doing such a great job.
[Mindy Kaling] So I think the key to dosa is very simple,
which is a lot of oil.
So what I do is put a little bit of oil in the holes
to make it crispy.
[Kamala Harris] Oh, that's smart.
[Mindy Kaling] My dad kind of always did this.
Hi (laughs).
[Avu Chokalingam] Hi (laughs).
[Kamala Harris] This is your father?
[Mindy Kaling] This is my dad, Avu. [Kamala Harris] Hi, uncle, hi.
[Mindy Kaling] Dad, this is Senator Harris.
[Avu Chokalingam] It's an honor to meet you, Mrs. Senator.
[Kamala Harris] How are you? [Avu Chokalingam] Pleased to me you.
[Kamala Harris] It's so good to meet you.
[Avu Chokalingam] Thank you for coming.
[Kamala Harris] My grandparents lived in Besant Nagar
[Avu Chokalingam] Yeah. [Kamala Harris] Uh huh.
[Avu Chokalingam] Actually, my family lives there.
[Kamala Harris] Yes, I would go take walks in the morning--
[Avu Chokalingam] On the beach, yeah. [Kamala Harris] On the beach
With my grandfather. [Avu Chokalingam] Yeah.
[Mindy Kaling] Dad, did you know that her family
keeps spices in Taster's Choice bottles?
[Kamala Harris] We would keep the same in Taster's Choice.
But why is it that you guys keep
these things in Taster's Choice?
I never asked, but my mother drank
Taster's Choice coffee every morning,
so I guess and we recycle everything, of course.
(laughing)
[Mindy Kaling] Wait, Senator Harris, what do you think of this dosa,
you think it's done?
[Kamala Harris] That's really good. [Mindy Kaling] I think it's gonna be
pretty good, here we go.
(gasps)
[Kamala Harris] Wow, I am really impressed.
[Mindy Kaling] Okay, so now the components are all ready.
And we're just gonna take the potato
and put it into the dosas. [Kamala Harris] Yum.
[Mindy Kaling] And now, we fold 'em over.
That was the, that was the better way to do it.
(laughing)
Yes, wait.
[Kamala Harris] Look at how gorgeous that is.
[Mindy Kaling] I'm gonna do the same thing on mine.
So, masala dosa.
Thank you for eating this.
I would give this a hard B-.
The dosas weren't, I didn't think they were--
[Kamala Harris] But the flavor is very nice.
[Mindy Kaling] Thank you, I was nervous cooking in front of you.
[Kamala Harris] But you shouldn't be, you're such a good cook.
[Mindy Kaling] Okay, thank you. [Kamala Harris] This is very good.
[Mindy Kaling] Maybe when you're in the White House,
I can come and cook you a meal.
Thank you so much for cooking in my home with me.
[Kamala Harris] I'm so glad to be with you.
[Mindy Kaling] I'm so honored and excited to vote for you.
[Kamala Harris] Aww, you're the best. (laughing)
(mellow drum beat)