Kal Penn tells Lilly Singh why he is scared to eat at Indian restaurants

indica News Bureau-

 

Indian-American actor Kal Penn aka Kalpen Modi has revealed why he hesitates to eat at Indian restaurants.

Penn, best known for his Harold & Kumar movies, was speaking to Lilly Singh on her new late-night talk show. “It’s very simple, our people lie,” he said.

The actor said that because he has a nut allergy, he informs the staff at every restaurant to ensure that his food does not contain any.

“Often times, I’ll order Indian food or I’ll go in and talk to the uncle and tell him ‘look, I’m allergic to cashews, almonds, pistachios’ and I’ll say it in three languages and they’ll go ‘yeah, yeah, there’s none of that here’.”

He continued, “I’ll ask them, ‘can you please go check with the chef’ and they say ‘mai chef hoon [I’m the chef]’.”

Then the food arrives and after just one bite Penn starts choking. So, he would ask the ‘uncle’ again what is in it, and he would say the dal has lentils, onions, cashews, tomatoes… “No! Go back! Before the tomatoes. Cashews?” Penn said. “Yeah, but it’s in the paste,” the ‘uncle’ would say.

Indians commenting on the video had a good laugh, the Hindustan Times reported. “Yep, we Indians aren’t very honest about food ingredients. Ask for less spicy and we’ll give you extra hot,” one person wrote.

“On behalf of all Indians I can say we all need two necklace chains. 1) The aunties were wrong. 2) The uncles are liars,” another wrote, referring to a necklace that Lilly Singh was wearing on her show.

Others wrote that Penn had pointed out a very real problem. “I’m Indian and allergic to nuts and this is the story of my life!” one wrote. “So glad you addressed this as it really is a problem with our people, and I’ve nearly died because of this.”

Another said, “Many Indians believe allergy is propaganda. One of them is my friend. You’d be lactose intolerant and choking on milk, but he will think it’s all in your brain.”

Lilly Singh and Kal Penn also spoke of how the American entertainment industry has progressed in recent years so much as to have two persons of Indian origin sharing the stage at a major network talk show.

YouTube star Lilly Singh recently became the first woman to get her own late-night show. Another Indian-origin artiste-writer, Mindy Kaling, was her first guest.

Related posts