Friday, July 07, 2006

Indian Chinese food

Hindi-Chini bhai bhai claimed Jawahar Lal Nehru, before China did a bit of backstabbing making Nehru eat his words. Poor Nehru, I wonder if he had to give up on Chinese food after this bitter experience.

I would not be totally off the mark if I said that Chinese is the most loved foreign cuisine in India. But wait! We have got our own back at the Chinese. Unhappy with the humiliation heaped on us in the Indo-China war, we have systematically set about vandalizing something the Chinese consider sacred. Their food.

Point in example. Bangalore's all pervading Darshini's. These havens of cheap, clean, healthy local food have gone global (read: Chinese) with a vengeance. Items on Chinese (also at times Chainese, Chayness, Chinise, ..the list goes on and on, but i'm digressing) Menu : Veg Nuddles, eg Fraid Rice, and *trumpets-blowing-for-king-of-'em-all* Gobi Manchurian. The humble cauliflower, which my mom makes such good upkari (a Konkani delicacy) of, is reincarnated, and completely beyond recognition. Notice the not so subtle snub(s) given to Communist ruled China:

1. Red China be damned. We are not scared of you. To prove this, we make our Gobi Manchurian an un-natural red (See, See, the Red Connection...And you guys thought it was just the tomato ketchup!). And we gobble it up, to symbolize that the red dragon can be countered by peace loving, garlic breath oriented mouths.

2. No Gobi Manchurian in China!!! Damn you. Look, we have gone ahead of you already. And you try and divert attention with trivial matters like good infrastructure and stuff.

There are other hidden subliminal snubs, but I would have to spend the whole day typing it out, but I hope, dear reader, you get the point.

So the next time you go and order for that plate of Gobi Manchurian, remember, you are not just indulging your taste buds, but you are also making a statement against Communism, against state sponsered lies and more importantly, saluting the Indian spirit of improvisation, nay, innovation!

Jai Hind

4 comments:

Harsha said...

I think if the chainese were to eat gopi manchuri.... they could immediately goto china without ticket ;) I think they would definitely feel the wrath of the indian dragon !!! If not immediately, then next morning..

Btw, I love gobi manchurian *mental note....has to be on the dinner menu tonite*

Nice post kini...

Vinayak said...

@harsha
hilarious :)

Anonymous said...

Chinese food is my favorite too-especailly Manchurian and fried rice.
There used to me a saying " The Americans invent, the Japanese innovate". Its slightly different here " The Chinese invent, the indians innovate" Hope it is vice-versa someday where democracy is concerned for the poor chinese citizen and blogger.

Anonymous said...

the only gobi that is really there in china is the gobi desert lol
but jokes apart indian chinese is tasty chinese and for me it is real chinese. i love it.
i use Ching' secret all stir fry sauce, hakka noodles and the new chicken sweet corn soup from Ching's secret and make my chinese dinner at home itself.