What is Indo-Chinese food? From Kolkata to Glasgow
Indo-Chinese food is Chinese cooking reshaped for Indian tastes. Where it began in Kolkata, what goes into it, and how to order a balanced table.
Indo-Chinese food is Chinese cooking adapted to Indian tastes. It grew out of the Chinese community in Kolkata, where cooks worked with different ingredients, added more spice and built a cuisine of its own, with garlic, ginger, chilli and soy cooked in a very hot wok. Here is where it came from and how to order it.
Where it began: Kolkata
The story starts in Kolkata. According to Wikipedia, Chinese settlers arrived there during British rule, and the city was the most accessible metropolitan area of the country by land from China. The same entry records the first settler arriving in 1778. Hakka Chinese were among the settlers who made their lives in the city.
Those early cooks could not simply recreate what they knew. Wikipedia notes that the ingredients and spices available were different from those of Guangdong, and that restaurants cater their food to the tastes of their Indian patrons, using more spices and heavier douses of sauce and oil than the traditional techniques required. That is the heart of the idea. Indo-Chinese food is not a copy of Chinese food in India, and it is not a copy of Indian food either. It is a third thing, shaped by the people who cooked it and the people who ate it.
The building blocks
Strip away the individual dishes and you find a short list of ingredients that appear again and again: garlic, ginger, green chilli, soy sauce, vinegar and cornflour, all cooked in a very hot wok. Wikipedia says hot chilli, ginger and garlic are frequently used in dishes, and its entry for Hakka noodles mentions sauces, vinegar and high heat. The account of the Manchurian recipe names garlic, ginger and green chillies together with soy sauce and cornstarch.
The wok matters as much as any ingredient. Everything on our Indo-Chinese side is cooked fresh to order.
Dry or gravy?
Order Indo-Chinese food anywhere and you will soon meet the question of whether you want it dry or with gravy. Wikipedia explains that non-staple dishes are by default served with generous helpings of gravy, although they can also be ordered “dry” or “without gravy”.
In plain terms, a dry dish comes without gravy and a gravy dish comes with it. Neither is better. It depends on the table and the mood. Our own Gobhi Manchurian, for example, is listed on the menu as served with a rich, savoury Indo-Chinese gravy.
The main dishes
Wikipedia has a section of main dishes for the cuisine. It notes that the main ingredient can often be swapped for other meats, vegetables or paneer, and that the name usually gives the main ingredient first and the style second, as in “Chilli Chicken”. Many are available in both dry and gravy versions, which vary the amount of sauce.
- Chilli chicken and chilli paneer. Wikipedia says the “Chilli” style implies batter-fried items cooked with pieces of chilli pepper.
- Manchurian. Listed among the main dishes, with the style implying a sweet and salty brown sauce. It is said to have been invented by Nelson Wang in 1975, and we tell the story in our guide to Manchurian.
- Hakka noodles. Wheat noodles stir-fried with vegetables, chicken or meat, sauces, vinegar and other additions on high heat.
- Schezwan. The style implies a spicy red sauce. Wikipedia adds that dishes with this name usually bear very little resemblance to ones from China’s Sichuan Province.
A name behind the most famous dish
Wikipedia describes Nelson Wang as an Indian restaurateur of Chinese descent, born in Kolkata in 1950. According to Wang himself, he was a cook at the Cricket Club of India in 1975 when a customer asked him to create a new dish. The result was Chicken Manchurian. It is a good illustration of how the cuisine works: Indian ingredients and Chinese sauces come together in one dish.
It travelled
Great British Chefs describes Indo-Chinese cooking as one of the most popular types of food in India, with noodles and fried rice found on the streets of Mumbai and Kolkata alongside traditional Indian foods. It lists chilli paneer and gobi Manchurian among the hot and spicy dishes that are popular there. That street-level popularity is exactly the spirit we are after at Nukkad Café, where the wok sits next to the street food rather than apart from it.
How to order a balanced table at Nukkad
Our plates are made for sharing, so the best approach is to order a few for the table, mixing the Indo-Chinese side of the menu with the street food side.
- Start with a street-food plate. Nukkad ki chaat is £7.50: crispy samosa, golden aloo tikki and papdi on a bed of fresh salad, finished with yoghurt and our signature chutneys.
- Add an Indo-Chinese dish. Gobhi Manchurian is £7: golden fried cauliflower served with a rich, savoury Indo-Chinese gravy.
- Add a second one. Veg Manchurian is £11: crispy fried vegetable dumplings cooked in a rich, savoury, thick Indo-Chinese gravy.
- Bring in another street-food plate. Our dabeli is £8: spiced mashed potato in a soft pav, layered with tamarind chutney, pomegranate seeds, roasted peanuts and sev.
You can read more about the cooking on our Indo-Chinese food in Glasgow page, see our vegetarian dishes, browse the full menu, or book a table at 51 Bell Street, Merchant City.