Amitabh Bachchan, says wife Jaya, is not a food person at all. He�s indifferent to food. At home, he won�t ask for lunch or dinner. And when it is placed before him, cooked by his Nainital maharaj, he will nibble. It is mainly dal-chawal, aloo-bhindi. Outside, he will only eat vegetarian Chinese food. Or sometimes Italian. His favourite dish is Penne all�Arrabbiata. He has it spicy, like it is made in Florence or Capri! Local Italian restaurants don�t prepare it that way, so Amitabh prefers Chinese. The choice is wider, even for a veggie. His favourite restaurants in Bombay are China Garden and Golden Dragon. The story goes that he used to drive to China Garden late at night and sit in his van in the restaurant�s parking lot. His friend Nelson Wang would then cook all Amitabh�s favourite Chinese food and the waiters would smuggle it out of the restaurant. The Big B would sit and eat in his van. It was better for him, and also for China Garden!

You�ve always been a vegetarian, right?
Not always. I became one 25 years ago on a whim. Earlier, I ate everything. Even whale! I was a freight broker for a Calcutta shipping company and everytime a foreign ship came in, I used to taste the food on board. Octopus, squid, shark, all kinds of funny things. I hated it. But that was all part of office duty.

What�s your breakfast like?
I have a peculiar breakfast. Beansprouts soaked overnight. No tea. No coffee. Occasioanlly, I have cornflakes or oatmeal porridge. Or the odd hardboiled egg. I haven�t given up eggs.

Can you cook yourself?
Under lot of duress, I can do a burnt omelette. Or a full boiled egg. I can toast bread in the toaster. And I can make a cup of tea using a tea-bag. I believe people who aren�t foodies can�t cook at all. But if I�m thrown in a kitchen, and I have to cook, then I think I�ll be good at cooking.

But you aren�t a foodie.
I�m not, but I must have been, because I remember the wonderful Chinese food I�ve eaten in Calcutta. At Park Street, in the Continental restaurants, and at the night club Golden Slipper. I could not afford the unbelievable kathi kebab at Nizam�s so I used to eat the pucchka outside Victoria Memorial. Their pucchkas are different from our paani-puri. I miss it. I also miss the chaat at Bengali Market in New Delhi. And the incredible food at Parathewali Gulley in Chandni Chowk. I long to eat at all these places... but I�m not a foodie.

Do you have a sweet tooth?
I�m an Indian mithai man. I prefer kheer, kulfi and rabdi.