What is Indo-Chinese Food? | Explains
Indo-Chinese is one of India’s most popular foods, though most people haven’t heard of it–including Chinese people. Why did Chinese food become so popular in India and what does it tell us about the history of these two regions? Today, this collaborative cuisine is taking over the world.
Did you know that Chicken Manchurian isn’t Chinese? Nelson Wang, a third-generation Chinese immigrant in India, created the dish in 1975 while working at Mumbai’s Cricket Club. But Chinese food in India dates way further back than the 70’s. The oldest restaurant opened in 1925, and was frequented by many Bollywood stars.
Chinese immigration to India dates way back to the 18th century, when many Chinese workers filled industries from sugar-mills to leather and carpentry. To cater to them, eateries began opening that would replace native Asian ingredients with Indian cooking staples. Further, Chinese men began marrying Indian women, making the union of these two cuisines even more tangible. Now found around the world, here’s the history of Indo-Chinese cuisine.
Host and Producer
Keshia Hannam
Producer
Stephanie Tangkilisan
Joy Jihyun Jeong
Associate Producer
Manal Ahmed
Researcher and Writer
Manal Ahmed
Director of Photography
Stephanie Tangkilisan
Editor
Rendy Abi
Editor-in-Chief
Keshia Hannam
Head of Production
Stephanie Tangkilisan
Animator
Nandito Luthfi
Graphic Design
Samuel Kang
Fitra Pratama
Annie Zhao
Did you know that Chicken Manchurian isn’t Chinese? Nelson Wang, a third-generation Chinese immigrant in India, created the dish in 1975 while working at Mumbai’s Cricket Club. But Chinese food in India dates way further back than the 70’s. The oldest restaurant opened in 1925, and was frequented by many Bollywood stars.
Chinese immigration to India dates way back to the 18th century, when many Chinese workers filled industries from sugar-mills to leather and carpentry. To cater to them, eateries began opening that would replace native Asian ingredients with Indian cooking staples. Further, Chinese men began marrying Indian women, making the union of these two cuisines even more tangible. Now found around the world, here’s the history of Indo-Chinese cuisine.
Host and Producer
Keshia Hannam
Producer
Stephanie Tangkilisan
Joy Jihyun Jeong
Associate Producer
Manal Ahmed
Researcher and Writer
Manal Ahmed
Director of Photography
Stephanie Tangkilisan
Editor
Rendy Abi
Editor-in-Chief
Keshia Hannam
Head of Production
Stephanie Tangkilisan
Animator
Nandito Luthfi
Graphic Design
Samuel Kang
Fitra Pratama
Annie Zhao
Transcript
00:00 What happens when you combine Indian with Chinese food?
00:03 Answer, one of the greatest secret foods in the world.
00:06 Indo-Chinese is one of India's most popular foods, but most people outside of India haven't
00:10 heard of it.
00:11 And what's even more crazy is that most Chinese people haven't even heard of it.
00:15 These are dishes like chicken manchurian, sweet and sour soup, schezwan chutney, chili
00:19 chicken, chicken shashlik, things that we all grew up eating.
00:23 In fact as someone who was born in Hong Kong but visited their family in Mumbai every Christmas
00:27 and summer, I had no idea that chicken manchurian was not Chinese until just now actually.
00:35 It's not Chinese?
00:37 I'm Chinese and I've never heard of it.
00:39 It's not Chinese?
00:40 What?
00:41 So who invented Indo-Chinese food?
00:44 And what does it tell us about the history of these two regions?
00:47 I'm Keshia, Hong Kong-born Indian third culture kid, and this is EST Explains.
00:54 What happens when you marry Chinese technique with South Asian flavor and spice?
00:59 Indo-Chinese baby!
01:00 That's what Nelson Wang did in 1975 when he created the chicken manchurian.
01:04 He was a cook at the cricket club in Mumbai, but was born in Calcutta as a third generation
01:09 Chinese immigrant in India.
01:11 But he wasn't the first to experiment with these two cuisines.
01:14 Chinese immigration to India dates way back to the 18th century when many moved to Calcutta
01:18 as sugar mill workers.
01:19 Chinese workers filled many industries from leather to carpentry.
01:22 By the end of the second world war, Calcutta had over 26,000 Chinese immigrants.
01:27 And to cater to them, eateries specifically for Chinese workers began opening, and women
01:31 at home started selling food as a side business.
01:34 But migrants had to make do with whatever ingredients they could find in India.
01:38 When they couldn't find native Chinese greens like choy sum and gai lan and baby spinach,
01:42 they used carrots and cabbage instead.
01:44 Sichuan pepper was swapped for red chilies and crab for prawn.
01:47 Soy sauce stayed, but garlic and ginger, two staples of Indian cooking, were added.
01:52 And when the owners of restaurants realized that Indians also wanted to eat Chinese food,
01:55 the flavor was dialed up even more.
01:58 Then Chinese men increasingly married Indian women, and the union of these two cuisines
02:02 became even more tangible.
02:03 In 1925, when Calcutta's oldest Chinese restaurant Nanking opened, many Bollywood stars like
02:08 Raj Kapoor and Dilip Kumar would visit them often.
02:11 Today, Calcutta has its own Chinatown, called Tiretta Bazaar.
02:15 As for Indo-Chinese food in Pakistan, it followed Chinese immigrants as they entered the country
02:20 in waves, first during the partition of India in 1947, and then again in 1962 during the
02:25 Indo-Sino war, and then finally in 1971 after Bangladesh was formed.
02:30 Some of the oldest Chinese Pakistani eateries already existed though, like the ABC restaurant
02:34 that opened in the 1930s and Karachi's Sadar.
02:37 Today, Chinese restaurants dot many of Pakistan's metropolitan cities.
02:41 In Dhaka, Bangladesh, Chinese food leans more Cantonese, but the most incredible thing about
02:46 Indo-Chinese food?
02:47 It's now an export.
02:48 You can find it everywhere, all over the world, from America to the UK to Australia, and if
02:53 you're ever in Little India in New Jersey, you have to check out all the bomb Indo-Chinese
02:57 restaurants on Oak Tree Road.
02:59 It's proof that even as things get crazy in this world, food is something that is always
03:04 going to bring us together.
03:05 [MUSIC PLAYING]
03:08 (gentle music)
03:11 [BLANK_AUDIO]