No Res, Day 5: The Curious Case of Chinese Cuisine...

Even though this cuisine is a favorite across India and even in my own house, I’ve never really tried to make a dish from scratch myself. The Chinese food I’ve made at home was from premix packets because my brain couldn’t quite fathom how to achieve the flavors that appear in this cuisine. And it’s not surprising, because many of the ingredients like oyster sauce and rice wine vinegar are not ingredients I was familiar with, and several of the combinations used were completely alien to me.

This class essentially demystified Chinese (albeit Indian Chinese) cuisine for me. And I was very pleasantly surprised when the dishes we cooked actually smelt like the ones I associate with the Chinese food available in eateries here!

That said, I realized that be it in an ‘authentic’ restaurant or in a cooking classes, all Chinese food that we are exposed to in India is invariably an Indianised version of the cuisine, or at least has been slightly altered to suit Indian taste buds. Despite the fact that Chinese food was one of the older foreign cuisines to gain popularity in India, real authentic Chinese food, the kind that would be traditionally eaten in Chinese homes, is elusive in India. The Manchurian, a non-existent idea in China, is a mainstay in almost all ‘Chinese’ restaurants in India, and the only dessert available in Chinese restaurants here is darsan.

Obviously, now I really want to learn more about truly authentic Chinese food. And when I’ve done that, I’ll share it in a post. But till then, I’d love to hear any insights you might have. :)