We all like to eat Chinese street food, mainly fried rice, Hakka noodles, schezwan noodles , Manchurian etc. These are enjoyed and loved in every part of the country. But these delicacies did not originate in china but our own country. It is the ingredients that distinguishes Indian Chinese food from real Chinese food. Indian ingredients like, garam masala, cabbages, carrots etc are added to the Chinese ingredients such as noodles, corn starch, soy sauce etc. The real Chinese food would rather be bland and simple but Indians like theirs flavorful and spicy.
The Indo-Chinese food has been credited to the Chinese immigrants that settled in Kolkata, Calcutta then. As Kolkatta was Located in the midst of a thriving trade route through which items like tea and silk were transported from China to Britain, Calcutta soon began to draw communities of skilled and unskilled Chinese workers. Many immigrants mainly of the Hakka origin settled in Tangra region of Kolkata by the early part of 20th Century. A Chinatown had developed in Kolkata and it thrived and buzzed with enterprise. Chinese served with distinction as dentists, tannery owners, sauce manufacturers, beauticians and shoe shop owners, but it was as restaurateurs that the Chinese found their fame and glory in India.
The Hakka immigrants used Indian ingredients to create legendary dishes such as Chowmein a common in Indo Chinese cuisine. Chow- mein in Cantonese means stir fried. The haka settlers stir fried noodles with cabbage, bamboo shoots, pea pods, green peppers, and carrots and spiced with Indian spices soy sauce and vinegar. Proteins such as chicken, egg and paneer are also added to it.
The Hakka Chinese also are credited to invent sauces such as green chili, Red chili, chili garlic, or hot garlic, that are popularly used in various recipes.
The taste soon spread to other parts of the country creating wonderful and legendary recipes that we even relish today. One such creation is of the famous Manchurian.
One of the Chinese immigrant nelson wang who was a cook at Cricket Club of India, in 1975, One day a customer asked him to get something that was different from the menu. He then experimented by taking cubes of chicken, coating them in corn flour and deep frying them. Wang then prepared a red sauce with onions, green chilies and garlic, and slapped some vinegar and soy into it.
He popped the fried chicken dumplings back into the sauce and gave it a quick stir so that the flavors came together and served it with steamed or fried rice. The customer loved it. This led to the creation of Chicken Manchurian that is today in every restaurant’s menu. This was later replaced by Gobi (cauliflower) and paneer for vegetarian version.
The Tangra region is not only known for its Chinese food but is also known for Chinese Kali Mandir. This Kali Mandir is very popular when it comes to offering and Prasadam. This goddess is fond of Chinese Food. The Local Chinese devotees visiting the temple offer fried rice, noodles, etc to the goddess. The Chinese devotees also worship the goddess according to their customs. There is a story behind how the Chinese community started worshiping the goddess. There was a young boy of around 8-10-year-old. He was suffering from some incurable disease. The parents had lost hope and had tried each and everything possible. The doctors had given hope and chances of survival were slim. In all eyes of hope, they kept the boy under the feet of the deity and the boy miraculously recovered. This news attracted the Chinese community to also worship the goddess in this temple.
