When I was fourteen in Calcutta, I mistakenly swiped what I thought was Chilli Chicken from a Chinese classmate’s tiffin. The salty umami flavors were familiar, but the hard, bony texture—and an unsettling pop—made me spit it out, wondering if I’d just bitten into a chicken’s head.
Years later, in China, I encountered more unexpected dishes—like a hot & sour-looking soup that was actually a thick garlicky gravy and a “schezwan fish” submerged in an oily, chili-laden broth. These surprises reaffirmed that Indian Chinese is merely a tamed-down, localized take on China’s vast and diverse cuisine. Rooted in Calcutta, Desi Chinese has quietly shaped India’s food culture for over a century.
Gateway City
It all started with Chinese immigrants who set up a sugar refinery south of British Calcutta in the late 1700s. When the mill closed, it’s several dozen employees and their families moved to the closest city, setting up the first Chinatown in India at Tiretti Bazaar in central Calcutta. Subsequent waves of Chinese immigrants followed. Due to war and famine in their homelands, they looked for an opportunity to re-settle in this burgeoning capital of British India. Over the following decades, the men folk worked as carpenters, tanners, dentists and drycleaners, and often, the women tended home and supplemented their income by selling meals. What started off as enterprising housewives selling steamed buns and fish-ball soup “Chinese Breakfast” on crowded pavements, slowly evolved into humble eating houses and then more…
Indianization
Cantonese and Hakka migrants had brought their cooking methods with them to Calcutta but could not always access the ingredients they needed. Dishes like “Chowmein” noodles were reinvented and stirfries replaced exotic meats (often) with chicken or local red meats; broths became more “gravy” like; easily available spices added a kick to recipes and subtle herbs that could not be found were often substituted or replaced; and so began the Indianisation of dishes. Over the next century “Chinese food” would spread out to other Indian metropolises and then to small towns, becoming an integral part of the Indian culinary landscape. To put things in perspective as to how far we’ve come, in the 1800s most Calcuttans (and Indians) had never encountered noodles, soy sauce or chopsticks!
Percolating Through Society
In 1920s British Calcutta, the glamorous restaurant Nan King was birthed with it’s violins and exquisite furnishings, putting Chinese food on a pedestal and making it exotic and sought after by the city’s elite. Close by, less glamorous, but equally delicious Eau Chew opened it’s doors. Tiretti Bazaar and it’s surroundings now ran the gamut from humble pushcarts to posh Chinese eateries, speeding up the adoption of this adventurous cuisine by locals. Over the next few decades, Indianised Cantonese and Hakka Chinese food found it’s way into the mainstream offerings of Calcutta. Establishments like Jimmy’s Kitchen, Waldorf and Chung Wah cropped up. The success of these stalwarts would lend confidence to other Indian cities to start their own now-legendary establishments. Often the cooks and owners would come from Calcutta – Golden Dragon in Bombay being a case in point!
Mass Appeal
Tangra, Calcutta’s second Chinatown, which was formed around Chinese-run tanneries started stepping into the culinary limelight in the 1980s. Kafulok and Kim Fa were home-dining experiences that were particularly popular, relatively cheap and very accessible to a growing middle class that couldn’t regularly afford the fancier restaurants in the heart of the city. Similar “democratization” was taking place on Calcutta’s main eating thoroughfare – Park Street. Ming Room by Trincas had opened it’s doors and started a new craze – it had added Indianised Sichuan flavours to the city’s existing offerings of Cantonese and Hakka. Ming Room
was the first “Sichuan Inspired” restaurant in Calcutta and significantly cheaper and more accessible than the two exclusive Taj Hotel eateries in Delhi and Bombay. All of a sudden the fiery flavours of Schezwan Hot Garlic Sauce and Chilli Garlic Noodles were in huge demand! It was clear to see that Chinese food in Calcutta’s 1980s had fully propelled itself to mass popularity by democratizing it’s offerings to suit all budgets. It showed the viability of these flavours to cater to the Indian palette. Restaurants across the country started adopting a few cult Chinese dishes and adding them to their repertoire – chilli chicken and it’s vegetarian
counterpart chilli paneer being foremost on that list. If you think about it now, every “multicuisine restaurant” in India serves Indian fare with a smattering of Continental and Chinese dishes.
Desi Chinese appears on street corners and in school canteens and at Indian weddings. The culinary adventure that started in Calcutta has gone national. Through evolution in the 1990s Chinese food in Calcutta tended towards deep-fried offerings, sometimes coated in heavily flavoured sauces – think Konjee Crispy Lamb, Crispy Chilli Babycorn and Salt & Pepper American Corn. So What’s Next for (Desi) Chinese Food? In the 2020s, dims sums and baos have shown that there is a demand for lighter, more health-conscious Chinese food. However, this trend has not translated into full meals. We still need our rice or noodles, our gravies and stirfries to feel fully satisfied. Trincas’ updated Chinese menu focuses on just that. Satisfaction. While classics and heritage recipes sit firmly in place, the menu now also allows for healthier options. Sliced chicken instead of deep fried chicken in gravies – think Sliced Chilli Chicken or Sliced Hor Garlic Chicken without the guilt, or the familiar flavour of Sichuan Prawns without the deep frying. Vegetarian ingredients like lotus stem, waterchestnut and broccoli make strong appearances in stirfries like the Dragon Style Stirfry with Cashewnuts, or the Sizzling Stirfried Vegetables served on a smoking hot plate and flavoured with sesame.
Vegetables are also combined with proteins in gravies like the Garlic Prawn Cantonese Style which has pak choy and waterchestnuts for a great contrast of textures, or in the Chilli Basil Roast Lamb that has deliciously crunchy long beans. Mushrooms with their newly discovered superfood status now feature in star dishes like the wine and garlic touched Trio of Mushrooms & Babycorn Hunan Style and also the ginger-forward Mushroom Fried Rice. For a city that’s uproarious about its food, Kolkata inadvertently started a rather quiet food revolution. Kolkata is also known for sticking firmly to its much loved favourite flavours. This menu pays homage then, not just to the classics and the history of the cuisine in the city, but ALSO to the classics as they keep up with modern times.
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