10 Chinese Foods That Indians Have Adopted!

Chinese food is popular among Indians. In fact, we are so much in love with Chinese cuisine that we often treat it as a sub division of our own vast cuisine. We treat Chinese food at par with Indian equivalents like Punjabi food, Chettinad food or Mughlai cuisine. But if a person from China would happen to come and eat 'authentic' Chinese food in India, he or she would get the shock of life!

The Indian version of Chinese food is vastly different from the authentic Chinese cuisine. Indians have borrowed some of the Chinese dishes like chowmein, soups, manchurian etc and adapted these to their own tastes. Actually Chinese food is supposed to be bland, but we Indians cannot eat food that is not spicy. So we have added some spicy tadka to our Indian version of Chinese food.

Actually, most Indians think that if you add soy sauce and ajino-motto (Chinese grass) to any food, it becomes Chinese. That is why we even have a Chinese bhel puri! Most often, original Chinese foods are not deep fried. They are either steamed or just blanched in oil. Indians have a fetish for oily and crisp pakoras. So, we have converted their blanched manchurians into a deep fried dish!

Here are some of the most popular Chinese foods that Indian have adopted and converted in their own style.

Chowmein

In India, chowmein is fried and spicy street food. But the original chowmein is supposed be boiled noodles with vegetables, scrambled eggs and soy sauce.

Manchurian

This dish gets its name from the province of Manchuria in China but has no relation to it. It was invented by Nelson Wang, an Indian of Chinese descent. He himself admits that he made chicken manchurian by adding soy sauce instead of garam masala!

Manchow Soup

In the Indian version, Chinese manchow soup is a soy based brown coloured spicy soup. It has vegetables, meat and fried noodles. Again it has no relation with the Chinese province of Manchuria or any original Chinese soup.

Spring Rolls

The Chinese call it chūn juǎn or the rolls of spring. This is one dish in which Indians have managed to maintain some authenticity. However, many restaurants add Indian spices in spring rolls.

Dumplings Or Momos

Steamed momos are more or less similar to their original Chinese inspiration. However, the concept of deep frying the momos is totally Indian.

Chicken Lollipop

What we call as chicken lollipop is actually 'drums of heaven' in Chinese cuisine. To put it simply, they are deep fried chicken wings with a few bones removed. Indian make it in their own way with a spicy red batter and serve it with Szechuan sauce.

American Chop Suey

Strangely, this Chinese dish also has an American version. This dish of fried noodles with vegetables, meat, sweet n sour sauce and poached eggs was first adopted by America. And we still call this dish American chop suey.

Szechwan

Indians love the flavour of Szechuan sauce because it is really spicy. So we add it to fried rice, noodles, chicken and vegetables gravies; even in our bhelpuris!

Chilli Chicken/Prawn/Vegetables

In authentic Chinese, this is a soy based gravy with steamed meat or fish or vegetables in it. But Indians usually fry the chicken/prawn/vegetables and then add it to a very spicy soy gravy.

Fried Rice

Original Chinese fried rice is basically rice steamed with veggies and meat/fish. We have started the trend of frying the rice to make it tasty and fattening.