One of my favouritecuisines is Chinese, and in Goa we have a host of Chinese restaurants andcountless small Chinese ‘gaados’ serving what most people think is food fromchina. The Chinese we know and love has very little in common with authenticChinese, but for the Chinese looking cooks and dishes named after places and arbitrary items that might sound orrelate to the Chinese culture like dragon or drunken(probably taken from a kungfu movie), and the confusion is compounded by the fact that Indians took thiscuisine to places like Malaysia, Singapore and even North America. Chinese foodin India was introduced by the small Chinese population in Calcutta’s Chinatownand is a fusion of Chinese cooking techniques and ingredients and Indianspices. Personally I prefer our desi Chinese version over the over the bonafideversion.
The uniqueness of thisgreat cuisine is in it style of cooking and use of fresh ingredients.Essentially it involves stir frying thinly sliced meat and vegetables over veryhigh heat and cooking them just enough to maintain their colour and texture.The high heat seals in the juices and lends a great smoky flavour and the waythe ingredients are cut ensures that they cook in that short span of time. Itis also brilliant combinations of flavours and textures that make this cuisineso popular. Every dish is a treat for the senses, and even a simple dish like afried rice encapsulates the softness of the rice the crunch of the vegetables,the saltiness of the soy sauce the sweetness of the meat, the savoury egg andthat all important smoky flavour from that relentless high pressure flame onthe well seasoned wok. Authentic Chinese is much healthier than it Indiancounterpart because they use a lot of steaming, poaching and slow roasting.
What I miss in India are good steameddumplings or steamed buns; yeast leavened cushions from heaven stuffed withanise flavoured sweet pork goodness, or even steamed duck pot sticker; pulledduck stuffed in thin rice paper or the shanghai steamed bun a dumpling that isfull of rich broth. My favourite in our version is anything cooked in Szechwan sauce,be it fried rice or noodles or any kind of meat or seafood. In india Szechwanrefers to the sauce made from chilly paste, garlic ginger, celery and onion, asauce that lends an extra dimension to any dish. The Sichuan style of cookingthough is completely different, and although the similarity is the bold spicyflavours of garlic and chilly, it is the Sichuan pepper that is the distinctiveelement. Manchurian, one of the most popular Chinese dishes in the country isactually a creation of a second generation Chinese chef, feddup of requests tomake the dishes spicier, threw in some chillies and coriander into a dish andcalled it so. Soon people thrilled with the taste started asking for it atother restaurants and that’s how it spread all over. Made in india or in china,I love it either way.
