There are two kinds of office complexes in a metro - the fab and the drab.
The first kind consist of steel, chrome and glass. Blue and orange carpeting, Nescafe machines near the elevators - the kind of offices you see in interior design magazines.
The second are situated in drab 'industrial estates' which haven't been whitewashed since the last time Rajesh Khanna made a girl swoon... Which was, ahem, quite a while ago.
The one bright spot in these kind of office complexes is the canteen boy from the mandatory Udipi restaurant on the premises.
These grubby but ever-cheerful young fellas ferry coffees and dosas and samosas stuffed with the alu bhaji left over from lunchtime. Last week, our canteen boy proudly came and announced -'Ab Chainis start ho gaya hai'. Promptly, we all placed inaugural orders.
Be Indian, Eat Indian
Udipi 'Chainis' is a unique brand of cuisine, an advanced version of the Indian family of Chinese khaana peculiar to this part of the world.
Vir Sanghvi, writing in his 'Rude Food' column credits Nelson Wang of China Garden with 'inventing' Indian Chinese. That was in the early '70s. Before that a few fancy restaurants served 'authentic Chinese'. And it found hardly any takers.
Then, one day Wang deep fried some gobi florets, dunked them in a hot n spicy Indian style sauce and came up with the exotic sounding name 'Manchurian' and Chinese was permanently de-chinkified and took on Indian culinary citizenship.
Well, Udipi Chainis is the baap of even Indian Chainis. It consists of noodles or rice with finely diced carrot and French beans, cooked in an oily kadhai with generous slatherings of soya sauce. Then there are 'gravy items' with either chicken or veg fried something-or-the-others. Here the sauce is more viscous, garlicky and generally either dark brown or bright red. Actually in large parts of south India - especially in restaurants of mallu origin the name has been changed to "Manjuri" from manchurian!
I started appreciating the divinity (seriously) and deliciously different taste of “hamara” Indian Chinese food. Here'z to the Indians and there innovativeness in …..well everything ;).
Yes, Indian Chainees is quite tasty :-) but now we have moved on to the Chinese samosa...samosas with noodle stuffing...am sure the Chinese must be wondering why they did not think of this before...and no Gujju Chainees will work for non-veggie.
Believe me.. but the chinese in India tastes much better in India than what it tastes in China.. IT IS ABSOLUTELY EEEEEEKY..!!
The only good thing is that you realise that shcezwan and manchuria are 2 different areas in China and the food tastes differs with the regions.. while the schezwan prefer the hot food.. the manchurians are more towards the bland side.. also there is the third form of chinese food in China and it something with k.. i fail to recall the name.. anways.. Udipi chinese is a bit too much.. but it sure is no harm in trying..!!
We Indians have this habit of adapting to changes...but guess the common man will always get what he wants as far as food is concerned- Indianzied version of a foreign thing. Not only food but also if one remembers ad's of foreign products - the one that comes in my mind right now is that of a cellotape (see I made American scotch tape to English Cellotape - it had some punch line like "no kat-ka-tu" ...and all of a sudden it was given an Indian feel!
Its all about demand and supply after all!
Anyways my first crush with Chinese was when i had Sweet corn chicken soup at the famous Bheel restaurant in Udaipur long ago during my school days. It was an occasional indulgence as a change from home food.
Now, the real Chinese food is something no one can imagine. The first reaction would be yuccckk!!! How on earth can anyone eat something as bland as this? No wonder it's the "Indian Chinese" food that rules in India.
Imagine the head of the state in China literally holding a platter in front of the Indian counterpart for the sake of cuisine competition. This one's definitely a filler for the next Bollywood movie 'China Plate'.
And remember, Udipi Chinees is most compatible with that industrial strength Indian cola : 'Thums Up'. Enjoy the satisfying burp!
Bottomline: Indian food - especially curry and naan - has become hugely popular in many parts of the world. From there, it may just be a short step to 'Indianised' world cuisine - like Indian Chainis. Then maybe a further specialisation: 'Gujju Chinese'.
And thus, will India bring mighty China to its knees - begging for mercy!
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