: Love Schezwan Chowmein Desi-Style Manchurian? Here’s How ‘Chindian’ Food Won Indian Hearts #IndiaNEWS #Food It’s sweet, sour and spicy. It’s deliciously saucy and just the right amount

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Love Schezwan Chowmein Desi-Style Manchurian? Here’s How ‘Chindian’ Food Won Indian Hearts #IndiaNEWS #Food
It’s sweet, sour and spicy. It’s deliciously saucy and just the right amount of greasy. It also wouldn’t be recognised in China. So instead, we are talking about a unique cuisine loved by millions of Indians: Chindian.
Whether it’s chowmein or Manchurian, Chindian food is probably as Chinese as chaat it bears very little resemblance to the food eaten in China!
Whether it’s chowmein or Manchurian, Chindian food bears very little resemblance to the food eaten in China.
Crafted with indigenous ingredients for Indian taste buds, these dishes have earned a special place in the Indian culinary lexicon. So much so that most restaurants serving Indian food usually have a Chinese section on the menu that features all the usual favourites – chowmein, chilli chicken, or manchow soup.
But where did this hybrid cuisine first emerge? And how did it take on a life of its own in India?
Like many great food origin stories, this tale begins with an immigrant community and involves many enterprising entrepreneurs.
In the 18th century, Calcutta (now Kolkata) lay bang in the middle of a thriving trade route between China and Britain. The city, then ruled by the British, drew thousands of Chinese workers. As is with immigrants anywhere, once they settled, they started missing their home food,
Soon enough, they were cooking their food and selling it on the streets to fellow workers. With time, they improvised the taste and incorporated local ingredients to make their food more appealing for Indian customers, notably using more spices.
“Authentic Chinese food is generally supposed to be bland. Indian-Chinese food is prepared with additional spices like chillis, onions and so on,� Pemba Tsering of Kolkata’s How Hua restaurant tells The National News.
As Chinese flavours began mingling with the local ones, a unique hybrid palate developed that gradually became an intrinsic part of Kolkatas culinary landscape.
As Chinese flavours began mingling with the local ones, a unique hybrid palate developed in Kolkata.
When my grandfather made green chilli sauce, he gave it to some street-side vendors to use with their snacks, Dominic Lee, owner of Kolkata’s Pou Chong sauce factory, tells VICE. One kheera (cucumber) seller began to put it on his slices and sell it to children. They loved it, and so he began to make more.
Renown Australian chef Gary Mehigan at Kolkatas famous Pou Chong sauce factory.
In the 1970s, such chefs from Kolkata began moving to Bombay (now Mumbai). Interestingly, all the early Chinese restaurants in Mumbai served Cantonese food, a regional cuisine even milder than more widespread Chinese fare.
Pioneering restaurateur Camellia Panjabi gave India its first taste of fiery Chinese food and red gravies, just the way most of us like our Chinese food today.

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