When Kamala Harris bonded with comedian Mindy Kaling over dosas and their shared Indian heritage.
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00:00I find that wherever I go, and I see Indian people
00:02at the supermarket, on the street,
00:04everyone's like, you know Kamala Harris is Indian.
00:06I feel like my parents, my dad will watch this.
00:08Just don't call me auntie.
00:09Okay, okay, I won't call you auntie.
00:12They'll be like, how could you call her
00:13by her first name, she's worked so hard.
00:15That's a fine chop.
00:17Right?
00:18Okay, Senator Harris, I say this with respect,
00:19you're kind of a show off.
00:20Right?
00:25Hi guys, it's Mindy.
00:26I'm here in my kitchen, and today we are cooking,
00:28but we have a very special guest,
00:31very special, Senator Kamala Harris.
00:34Hi guys.
00:35Wait, so here's what I want to know.
00:36Okay.
00:37Is it respectful to call,
00:39I should be calling you Senator Harris, right?
00:40No, you should not, that's not on my birth certificate.
00:43Okay.
00:44Kamala?
00:45Yes, please.
00:45Okay, because the Indian in me,
00:47I feel like my parents, my dad will watch this.
00:49Just don't call me auntie.
00:50Okay, okay, I won't call you auntie.
00:52They'll be like, how could you call her
00:54by her first name, she's worked so hard.
00:56Okay, so what we're gonna cook today
00:59is an Indian recipe.
01:00Yes.
01:01Because you are Indian.
01:02Yes, yes.
01:03Okay, and I don't know that everybody knows that,
01:04but I find that wherever I go,
01:06and I see Indian people at the supermarket,
01:08on the street, everyone's like,
01:09you know Kamala Harris is Indian, right?
01:10It's like our thing we're so excited about,
01:13to have you running for president.
01:15Yeah.
01:16So we're both Indian,
01:17but actually we're both South Indian.
01:19Yes, you look like the entire one half of my family.
01:23Okay, thank you.
01:23You do.
01:24I've been telling people we're related already,
01:25so this is perfect, it's basically true.
01:29And so were you raised eating South Indian food?
01:31South Indian food, lots of rice and yogurt,
01:33potato curry, dal, lots of dal, idli.
01:36Yes, idli, that's a deep cut.
01:38Okay, so what we're cooking today is two things.
01:40One of the South Indian staples is dosa,
01:43which is kind of like a sourdough crepe.
01:46And then we're gonna make a potato curry,
01:47which is the traditional accompaniment.
01:48So I printed out, so we're doing it the old fashioned way,
01:52which is I printed out a recipe from the internet.
01:54Okay, I'm ready.
01:55Okay, so when I told my dad
01:57that I was gonna be cooking South Indian food for you,
01:59he was extremely excited.
02:01He said, I shall get the spices.
02:02But he took them all, all the Indian spices,
02:05and he put them in.
02:06In the Taster's Choice jars,
02:07and this is exactly what my mother would do.
02:10So when I walked in and saw this,
02:11literally I didn't know it was actually a thing
02:14among our people.
02:15I guess it's an Indian thing.
02:16It apparently is a thing.
02:17Okay, cool.
02:18So this is all the spices we're gonna use,
02:20courtesy of my dad.
02:20And then dosas take a really long time to make the batter.
02:24So what we have is this great company,
02:25this Indian company actually,
02:27that makes ready-to-make.
02:28You can get it at the Indian store.
02:29So if we're busy, it's dripping.
02:31Okay, oh yeah, it's dripping, okay.
02:33So South Indians, it's vegetarian.
02:36It's all vegetarian.
02:37So when we were growing up and we'd go to India,
02:40and my grandfather was a little mischievous.
02:42So my grandmother, of course, was like strictly no, nothing.
02:46If it had a mother, it was not getting eaten.
02:49And if my grandmother would go out of town,
02:51my grandfather would then, he'd get very mischievous,
02:55and he'd say, okay, let's have French toast.
02:58Because, of course, that has egg.
03:01So when I would go and visit my family,
03:04obviously, no meat.
03:05Even the dog would eat rice and yogurt.
03:08Yeah, the dog would eat rice and yogurt.
03:10The dog would like the rice and yogurt.
03:11Very good Hindu vegetarians.
03:14But then I'd get older, cool cousins
03:16who would take me out on their motorcycles,
03:18and we would go get, we would all split like a lamb burger.
03:21Right, it was fast food.
03:23Like no beef or anything, obviously.
03:24But we would have lamb burger,
03:26and then we couldn't tell any of our grandparents about it.
03:29That's a fine chop.
03:30Right.
03:31Okay, Senator Harris, I say this with respect.
03:32You're kind of a show-off.
03:33Right.
03:36It's like, meanwhile, it's taken me 20 minutes
03:39to do this much of ginger.
03:41Okay, what can't she do?
03:43You got my vote.
03:45So your mom worked, and my mom worked,
03:47but my mom also.
03:48Your mother was a doctor.
03:49Well, it's just interesting thing about Indian women
03:51of a certain generation is you had to do both, right?
03:54Like my mom would wake up at five in the morning
03:55before she went to the hospital to see patients,
03:58and she would cook food for the whole week.
04:00Oh yeah, mommy did that too.
04:02And so some food that was cooked,
04:04dinner food was cooked at 6 a.m.,
04:06and then she would leave,
04:07and then so all of our food was cooked,
04:08and we, of course, didn't understand.
04:10We're like, we want to go to McDonald's.
04:12But there's this four-course Indian meal for us,
04:16even if she wasn't there to eat it with us.
04:18And it was that kind of a thing
04:19that was completely normal
04:21when you're the children of professional immigrants.
04:23Listen, this is how it was,
04:24because we would often come home from school
04:26before our mother would come home from work.
04:29And there was always fresh-baked cookies.
04:33No.
04:34Always, always, always.
04:37Oh my gosh.
04:37So all of that stuff, like everything was from scratch.
04:40And this is why maybe I've become,
04:42hopefully not a snob about food, but I take it.
04:44Someone who can cut up onions like that,
04:46like we're on a cooking show.
04:47Cooking show.
04:48I take it very seriously.
04:50Listen, this is controversial.
04:51I put peas and cashews in mine.
04:54Yay or nay?
04:55I noticed that.
04:57You know, I mean.
04:58Okay, all right.
04:59Your silence was very damning.
05:01I knew what you wanted to do.
05:02No, but you know what?
05:03I want to try it.
05:04Go on, go for it.
05:05No, because I don't want to suffer the consequences
05:06of our future president not liking my Indian food.
05:08So why don't I just, we'll just play it safe.
05:11Okay, put a couple in.
05:13Just put a couple in.
05:14Can I just tell you something?
05:14Yeah.
05:15I've never made dosas.
05:16Okay, but you're really good about critiquing them.
05:18Great.
05:19This is going to be great for me.
05:22All right, so let's get to the cooking part of it.
05:24I always use too much oil.
05:25I'm often surprised when I make things from scratch.
05:28Right.
05:29This is why I needed a US Senator to witness me do it.
05:32You are doing such a good job.
05:35How old were your parents when they came over?
05:36My parents were, I think almost maybe late twenties,
05:40like 28, 29, 30.
05:42See, my mother came when she was 19.
05:46By herself.
05:47No way, wow.
05:49My grandfather was very progressive
05:51and she wanted to study science.
05:53My mother's father was the same way.
05:55And you know, this is the thing that's really interesting
05:57because people have these stereotypes
06:00and actually misconceptions about who Indians are.
06:03I mean, at least I can speak about my own experience
06:05and you have a similar experience, it sounds like,
06:06where, you know, my grandfather was very progressive.
06:09Like his daughter wanted to go and do that
06:11and he was like, go ahead.
06:13I think this is done.
06:14I think so too.
06:14I think that we can move on to dosa.
06:16Okay.
06:17Here's my pre-made dosa mix that thousands of Indian women
06:19around the world are gasping that I'm using.
06:21I'm just gonna put some oil in the pan.
06:24Now, would your family, would they do the thing
06:26where they took the paper towel and spread it around
06:29or did they just leave it like this?
06:30Oh yeah, yeah.
06:30I just wanna let you know that I'm really stressed
06:32about doing this since you're...
06:35Okay, can I just tell you, I'm in awe
06:37that this is happening at all
06:38in a real kitchen in front of me.
06:41Look at how gorgeous that is.
06:42You're doing such a great job.
06:43So I think the key to dosa is very simple,
06:48which is a lot of oil.
06:49So what I do is put a little bit of oil in the holes
06:53to make it like crispy.
06:54Oh, that's smart.
06:55My dad kind of always did this.
06:58Hi.
06:59This is your father?
07:00This is my dad, Avu.
07:02Hi, uncle.
07:03Dad, this is Senator Harris.
07:05How are you?
07:07It's so good to meet you.
07:09Thank you for coming.
07:10My grandparents lived in Besant Nagar.
07:12Yeah.
07:13Actually, my family lives there.
07:16Yeah, I would go and take a walk soon on the morning
07:18on the beach with my grandfather.
07:21Dad, do you know that her family keeps spices
07:23in Taster's Choice bottles?
07:24We always keep the same in Taster's Choice bottles.
07:26Why is it that you guys keep these things
07:28in Taster's Choice?
07:29I never asked, but my mother drank Taster's Choice coffee
07:32every morning, so I guess,
07:34and we recycle everything, of course.
07:36Wait, Senator Harris, what do you think of this dosa?
07:37I think it's done.
07:38That's really good.
07:39I think it's gonna be pretty good.
07:41There we go.
07:42Wow, I am really impressed.
07:44Okay, so now the components are all ready,
07:47and we're just gonna take the potato
07:50and put it into the dosas.
07:53Yum.
07:54And now, we'll fold them over.
07:58That was the better way to do it.
08:02Yes, wait.
08:03Look at how gorgeous that is.
08:04I'm gonna do the same thing in mine.
08:06So, masala dosa.
08:08Thank you for eating this.
08:09I would give this a hard B minus.
08:13The dosas weren't, I didn't think they were.
08:15But the flavor is very nice.
08:17I was nervous cooking in front of you.
08:19But you shouldn't be.
08:20You're such a good cook.
08:20Okay.
08:23This is very good.
08:23Maybe when you're in the White House,
08:24I can come and cook you a meal.
08:26Thank you so much for cooking in my home with me.
08:28I'm so glad to be with you.
08:30I'm so honored and excited to vote for you.
08:32Aw, you're the best.