Chinese food is something we
are all, in our own way familiar with. Yes, yes, I know that using words like
`Chinese food’, `Indian food’, `Italian food’ et al are incorrect. It’s all about the regional variations like
Sichuan, Cantonese, Mughalai, Chettinad, Northern Italian and so on and so
forth. But that is not really my point here, so bear with me when I use the
catch-all term Chinese food.
The Chinese have migrated and
have now settled down all over the world. You have `Chinatowns’ in several
cities, Bangkok, London, New York and San Francisco are some that come to mind.
Many Australian cities too have large Chinese communities. The Chinese food in
these cities is, firstly, quite good and, secondly, the Chinese localities have
some really authentic regional Chinese food. In fact, the street signs in these
areas are often in Mandarin and when walking down the streets you will find
that many of the Chinese inhabitants barely speak the local language, they are,
literally, as the cliché goes, `off the boat’. These Chinatowns have their self
contained restaurants, grocery stores, dry goods stores, utensils and even
local language newspapers. I have also been to Tangra, the Chinatown of sorts
in Calcutta. Unlike all the Chinatowns in the rest of the world, the Chinese
influence in Tangra has been much diluted over the years and the amalgamation
or integration is far greater than in any other Chinatown I have seen. Many
explanations for this but once again, that is not the point.
The Chinese food available
in the cities with a largish Chinese population is, more often than not, of a very
high quality, far higher than anything available in India. This may have to do
with the fact that the ingredients they use outside India are better, may have
to do with the fact that people eat things other than just chicken as we do in
India, and, may have to do with the fact that they have authentic Chinese
cooking the food unlike us in India, where any person with slit eyes is
regarded as being `Chinky’. As a matter of fact, when HRH and I travel out of
the country, one of the more exciting things to do is to go to Chinatown and
have some meals there, the food is really good. It doesn’t beat the food we ate
in China, but it sure does give a good run for its money
A few days ago, a schoolmate
of HRH the Queen of Kutch was visiting Mumbai. She has lived out of the country
for several years now, including in Hong Kong. She said that she would like to
eat what she called `Indian Chinese’ food. With this request, we recalled
conversations with other Indian visiting India where they talked fondly of
`Indian Chinese’ food. Either they wanted to eat `Indian Chinese’ when in
India, or said that a new `Indian Chinese’ restaurant had opened in say, Philadelphia
or that they missed `Indian Chinese’ food. In other words, the Indian Diaspora has
a picture of / classifies / has a clear demand for a cuisine they call `Indian
Chinese’. In fact, HRH, the Queen was in the US a few months ago and attended a
party which had on its menu only, I mean only, `Indian Chinese’ food! I was
surprised by this. I did not realise that `Indian Chinese’ food was a category
of Chinese food, so distinct, albeit among the Indian Diaspora, that they would
be able to miss it, want it and identify it.
This got me thinking, and
this got me writing.
We all know the stories of
how Chinese food was Indianised. While there are many versions, one version is
that Godmother of Indian Chinese food, or the person on whose doorstep the
blame lies for creating `Indian Chinese’ is Ms Camelia Panjabi. She was the one
who put two and two together by realising that the fiery chilli laden Sichuan
cuisine would be loved by Indians and introduced Sichuan food at the Golden
Dragon the Taj Mahal Bombay. The other version is that Nelson Wang is
responsible for this. He was the one who invented `Man Chow’ Soup and Chicken Manchurian
where chillies and coriander leaves were used. Both versions are correct. There
are also several other factors that helped form this cuisine. This cuisine is
looked on with much contempt by the food critics and intellectuals who dubbed
it ‘Sino Ludhianvi’ food. I confess
that I fall within this category!
To my mind, the question to
be answered is, what is `Indian Chinese’ food, how can one define it, what are
its characteristics? You cannot brand any Chinese food which has chilli and
fresh coriander and `Indian Chinese’. There must be something more. Regional Chinese
food does use chillies and coriander so that is not the answer. I decided to
eat some `Indian Chinese’ food at what I consider `Indian Chinese’ restaurants
and try and answer the question. These are my answers. I must confess that I am
not a social scientist and I have not done any deep research. These answers are
just rants, as the blog is supposed to be, and opinion. You can have your own.
In fact it would be great if you shared your views here.
I am proceeding on the
footing that `Indian Chinese’ is a clearly definable cuisine and most
importantly, all Chinese food served in India is not `Indian Chinese’. In other
words, there is Chinese food which you cannot call `Indian Chinese’. If you do
not agree with this basic hypothesis, please don’t waste your time by reading
further.
Answer 1 – Invented food
The
simplest answer to the question is that `Indian Chinese’ is food which is
wholly an Indian invention, unauthentic and unknown in any other country. Case
in point the famous Manchurian Chicken and its Khandelwal friendly version Veg
Manchurian or even Gobi [Cauliflower] Manchurian. This is a dish that Nelson
Wang claims he invented. It consists of a black Soya Sauce based sauce
flavoured with chopped garlic, chopped chilly and garnished with fresh coriander
leaves. In the sauce you could have deep fried chicken meatballs/chicken nuggets/Paneer
fingers or in the vegetarian version mixed minced vegetable balls deep fried. The
batter coating helps thicken the sauce. This dish just does not exist in
Manchuria or in any part of China.
Please
note that you have to say Veg Manchurian. This is the correct dish. You never
say vegetarian Manchurian, just Veg Manchurian.
Another
example is the Szechwan Sauce. This is a lurid red sauce that is oily and
extremely spicy. This is used like a French mother sauce to make several
dishes.
Triple
Szechwan Fried Rice is another deadly creation, generally made at road side
stalls. This is a dish comprising of rice and
noodle and vegetables, sometimes chicken, all stir fried together with lashings
of Szechwan Sauce.
All
dishes with names like Chow Chow, Man Chow, Hakka Noodles are all completely
unknown in China.
These
dishes are made-in-India and exist just here and in the minds (and homes?) of
the Indian Diaspora.
Answer 2 – Gravy or Dry
Let’s
face it. All of us have been brought up on Daal and rice. Say what you want
about South Indians eating only rice and North Indians only wheat, a liquid
Daal is always part of a meal. We require liquids in our meals and our food is
quite wet and runny. Do you not find it amazing how little sauce is put on
dishes made in the Masterchef series [Australian not Indian]? Yes we need our
Daal. So when we are eating `Indian Chinese’ food what do we want most – gravy,
sauce to make up for our loss of Daal. Most `Indian Chinese’ dishes are
available in two versions - Dry or Gravy. We generally order the dry version
with our drinks. The Gravy version is what we order for our `main course’.
Not
only do we have to have Gravy, but we have to have masses of it to douse our
rice or noodle. Quite often when eating `Indian Chinese’ we order carbohydrates
- rice and noodle - along with a gravy dish. The Gravy helps us swallow all
that carbohydrate. The Gravy has to be thickened with corn flour and has to
have lashings of Aji No Moto in it.
The fancy pants crowd does not like this at all. The fancy pants crowd believes
that Corn flour clogs your stomach and Aji No Moto is poison. In fact there is
often so much Gravy that you have to fish for pieces of your `Gobi’ in the Manchurian.
Answer 3 – Deep fry everything
Lets
also face it, anything deep fried tastes good. One of the characteristics of `Indian
Chinese’ is that all food is deep fried and then doused in gravy. If the dish
is dry, it’s deep fried anyway.
Take
your pick, Prawns, Fish, Chicken, Paneer, Tofu and the delectable Chicken
Lollypops, everything is coated in a batter and then deep fried. Then this is
simply put into a Gravy of your choice and the dish is ready. No real skill
required. Ask some low level cooks to make basically `bhajiyas’ of everything
and keep them ready before service time. At service time simply make a gravy,
throw in the `bhajiyas’ and go.
Do
observe this the next time you are in an `Indian Chinese’ restaurant. The
dishes are all interchangeable. Prawn could be served in Black Bean, Szechwan,
Garlic, Sweet Sour, Chilli Garlic, Green, Hunan or Chilli sauce. Chicken could
be served in exactly the same way. Paneer too. See what I mean?
Answer 4 – Use of `English’
vegetables
At
an `Indian Chinese’ restaurant you will not get Chinese vegetables. By Chinese
vegetables I mean a simple Pak Choy [Bok Choy], Chinese Cabbage, Kalian or
Morning Glory [which is known in Mumbai as `Pani Bhaji’ – water vegetable]. No
chance. Mind you all these are available easily in most markets. What you will
get is Broccoli, Baby Corn, Mushroom, Carrot Cabbage and Asparagus. None of
these are in any way authentic. You could order your vegetable in almost the
same sauces I have listed. The heavy sauces just kill even these robust
vegetables. A simple Soya sauce, un thickened with a bit of stock and garlic is
all you really require to allow the Chinese Vegetables to shine thru. But no,
we insist on these English Vegetables with the heavy sauce which could also be
used as a Daal of sorts on the rice.
So folks, that is my set of
answers. Am I correct? Do you have any more? I would be happy to read them.
