Tuesday 27 January 2015

Local Flavours in a Foreign Dish

When the Indian chef heats up his pan to make Chinese food, he has many ingredients on the table beside him. He knows that the bland taste of the original cuisine will not appeal to the local palate. This is a land that is used to fiery tastes and pungent flavours. Food items that do not contain these essential qualities are bound to fail in a country that is rich with herbs and spices. The chef knows that he has to fill the dish with plenty of ideas from local cooking to make it a success.

So he puts the noodles into the pan and heats it up. But at the same time he has plenty of paneer in the bowl next to him. Paneer is loved in this country and one can lose count of the number of dishes that have paneer in them. It is only natural then that Chinese food made in this land should also have plenty of paneer in it.

The other ingredients he has by his side are plenty of oil. The original cuisine is known for being low on oil, but not the cooking of this land. This is a place where the people love their food to be oily and greasy, and naturally they also want their noodles and fried rice to be oily and greasy. But the flavours do not go in one direction alone. The chef also has other winning combinations that involve turning local dishes into oriental delights. So the chef takes the chicken curry, gives it an oriental twist and turns it into the chilli chicken. He takes the humble pakora, whether it is made of paneer, vegetables or chicken it does not matter, and he converts it into the Manchurian.

He also grinds up a lot of garam masala, and and soaks the dish with it. The chef knows that his customers will not touch food that does not have liberal quantities of masala in it. Then it is the turn of the vegetables and everything from capsicum to carrots and soya to cabbage is dumped into the dish. In a land with millions of vegetarians in them, it is but natural that vegetables should take pride of place in the kitchen.

The non-vegetarian dishes are simply variations of local themes infused with oriental cooking styles, and this combination has found fans all over the country. Lamb and chicken and fish are used in plenty while pork and beef are avoided to cater to local sensibilities. It is amazing how quickly these dishes have become popular all over the country so much so that from north to south and from east to west, they are available everywhere. There is no limit to the experiments that one can do with the cuisine of these two countries.

These are two ancient cultures that have thousands of years of traditions behind them. They are also large nations where the boundaries hold within them great diversity and many sub-cultures. This is the ideal melting pot for great inspirations that change the way we look at dining for years to come. The rapid growth of noodle bars and oriental eating places in the land means that the variety of dishes that are on offer is only going to increase.

Every chef and every local cook wants to put his own signature on an oriental dish, and there is plenty of experimenting that goes on. The cooks are always dreaming up of new ingredients that they can throw into the pot and come up with something new. And this experimenting is not just happening in the big niche restaurants. More often than not it is the local noodle and fried rice stall which goes on to earn a great name in the neighbourhood because the cook was enterprising enough to come up with a fancy new dish.

The origins of some of the most famous oriental eating places in the metropolitan cities are actually quite humble, and it is from these humble origins that the chefs have gone on to achieve great name and fame. The fragrance of the local spices will continue to blend with the dishes of the orient for many more decades to come thrilling diners all over the land.

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