When he arrived in Solo, Indonesia, earlier this week, chef Pablo Naranjo Agular took a taxi from the airport to his destination. While on his way there, he struck up a conversation with the driver and revealed that he's a chef. They continued chatting and after a bit, the cabbie stopped the car and told Agular, "Give me two minutes." He then went into a shop and came out with a steamed banana cake wrapped in a leaf. The driver gave it to the passenger and said, "Welcome to Solo. This is a traditional snack from here; why don't you try it?" Agular did, and they kept driving. And when it was time to pay and he asked how much it was for the cake, the driver told him not to worry about it. The cake was a gift from a local to a new visitor in his city.

It's this milk of human kindness that Agular has tasted everywhere he's gone so far to shoot for his new web show, Eating Around with Pablo. The places he's thus visited include Malaysia, Singapore, Macao and Indonesia. He narrates another incident, this one in Malaysia, to emphasise how welcoming the people in each country have been. Agular's car had broken down on his way back to the hotel after a rather eventful trip to a beach (we'll get to that later). People stopped to help him out and despite a language barrier, made him understand that there's an issue with the radiator and he needed to fill water in it. The car managed to start after that, though it still needed some work to be done. But the repairman he found told Agular that he was off duty that day. The chef explained the urgency to him and made a request. And the man then acquiesced, opened the shutters to his shop, and did the job that was required to help a foreigner in need.