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Creation of Indian-Chinese cuisine: Chinese Food in an Indian City

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 J Ethn Foods 4 (2017) 268e273

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Journal of Ethnic Foods

journal homepage: http://journalofethnicfoods.net

Original Article

Creation of IndianeChinese cuisine: Chinese food in an Indian city

Amal Sankar*
Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai, India

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This paper discusses two aspects of Chinese food served in India, based on data collected from fieldwork
Received 9 July 2017 in Dharavi, Mumbai along with the data gathered from online restaurant reviews, food ordering portals,
Received in revised form and blogs. First it discusses different forms of Indianizations in Chinese food served in India. Second part
29 September 2017
discusses how Chineseness is created through exhibits in and out of the restaurants, and how it com-
Accepted 10 October 2017
Available online 14 October 2017
municates ‘Chinese’ in the menu through these symbols. One Major observation was that Indian Chinese
restaurants mostly use Indian spices, flavors, and materials to make Chinese food, in which the main
flavors are spicy, and pungent. The cooked food is served in a bowl, and eaten with spoon, and fork. Some
Keywords:
Chinese food in India symbolic elements are frequently exhibited in Chinese restaurants. Predominant use of red color, random
IndianeChinese cuisine Chinese scripts, images of Chinese temples, paintings or statues of Buddha, symbols of wok, picture of fat
Restaurants in India Chinese chef, picture of dragon, symbols of bowl and chopsticks are such representations. The study
Indianization of food concludes that the Chinese food served in India is intrinsically Indianized Chinese food, and there are
certain Indian expectations of what Chinese foods are, and a Chineseness is created in Chinese restau-
rants to give Chinese feel during the eat out. The author argues that the Indian imagination of Chinese
food creates a new cuisine category Indian-Chinese cuisine which is neither Indian, nor Chinese.
© 2017 Korea Food Research Institute. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the
CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

1. Introduction
Chinese food is widely available in India; is spicy, red, and
greasy; and is mostly vegetarian or chicken/fish served with rice or
noodles. It can neither be considered as an authentic Chinese food
nor as Indian food but falls into a new category called the Indian
eChinese cuisine. Historically, dietary culture in India has been
influenced by TibetaneMongolian culture, which was in turn
influenced by the ancient Chinese cuisines modified to suit the
ethnic food preferences and sensory likings [1]. However, widely
available popular Chinese foods do not have lineage to the Chinese-
influenced TibetaneMongolian food. They can be traced back to
Chinese immigrants in Kolkata. Back in the late 19th century,
people with the Hakka ancestry who lived in Kolkata introduced
Hakka dishes to India. Later, only the name “Hakka” continues
without change, but the Hakka dishes have been changed to suit
the Indian taste. In 1920, the first Chinese restaurant was started in
Kolkata by the Huang family that migrated from the Moi Yen village
in southern China. They named the restaurant Eau Chew, which
* Corresponding author. Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian
Institute of Technology Bombay, Powai, Mumbai, 400076, India.
E-mail address: amalsankar@live.com.
was started as a low-cost tiffin place for the Chinese immigrants in
Kolkata. They served cutlets and pork chops for the European clients
in British India [2]. Since then, many Chinese restaurants have been
started in Indian cities such as Mumbai (then Bombay) and Chennai
(then Madras). The foods that they serve were considered
special and were exclusively available in few restaurants in these
cities. In the last decades of 20th century, Chinese food had become
popular and was widely available in the streets of Indian cities;
small restaurants and street food places started serving it.
Chinese food available in Indian streets cannot be considered
“Chinese food”; it mostly represents a comparably new food cul-
turedthe IndianeChinese food. IndianeChinese food is a percep-
tion of what Chinese food is like, as conceived by Indians. The
appearance and texture have been copied from Chinese immigrant
food makers in some cities in India, and an Indian touch has been
given by adding Indian masala and an increased use of Indian in-
gredients. Some flavors, such as a blend of garlic, ginger, soya sauce,
and red chili sauce, are commonly accepted as Chinese. These
blends can give a Chinese identity for foods, no matter who has
made it or what materials have been used to make it.
This article discusses two aspects of IndianeChinese food: (1)
different forms of Indianization of Chinese food served in India and
(2) how Chineseness is created through exhibits in and around the
restaurants and how they communicate that “Chinese food” is

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jef.2017.10.002
2352-6181/© 2017 Korea Food Research Institute. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/
licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
 A. Sankar / Creation of IndianeChinese cuisine 269

Table 1
Distribution of restaurants based on the availability of Chinese food

Availability of Chinese food Percentage Number

Serve Chinese food

India (36 major cities combined) 37.57 20,325
Mumbai 52.69 4,776
Do not serve Chinese food
India (36 major cities combined) 62.43 33,778
Mumbai 47.361 4,289

Data were compiled from restaurant portals, food-ordering websites, and food
blogs.

served in the menu through these symbols. Observations from

fieldwork conducted by the author in Dharavi, Mumbai, have been
used along with customer reviews and restaurant photographs
collected from restaurant portals, food-ordering websites, and food
blogs for analyses and discussions.

2. Research question and data Fig. 2. Noodles served in a bowl. Peculiar reddish-brown color is noticeable. The color
and greasy texture is attained by adding red chili sauce and soya sauce. The use of bowl
and greasy red and derivative colors of red are characteristics of Chinese food available
This work inquires what creates “Chinese” in “the Chinese food
in India.
in India.” The question arose during a fieldwork conducted by the
author in the first quarter of 2015 in the Dharavi area of Mumbai,
India [3]. The “Chinese” in IndianeChinese food comes from an
array of things, from the premises of the restaurant to the food. The
visuals that restaurateurs or street hawkers use to create identifi-
able Chinese ambiance, the color they use in common, the utensils,
the sauce bottles, and the wok were similar throughout. Apart from
these, the taste and creating “Chinese” in IndianeChinese food are
also identical. Through this work, the author tries to understand
“Chinese” from a larger point of view by discussing “the Chinese
food” from an Indian perspective, along with approaching the
research question with an assumption that in India, the under-
standing of the popular Chinese food is uniform and defined by
some set of predefined identifiers.
A large database of 54,103 restaurants from 36 major cities in
India was created. Among those restaurants, 20,325 restaurants
claim to serve Chinese food, and 53% of the restaurants in Mumbai
serve Chinese food (see Table 1). This study probes into the

Fig. 3. An image of a restaurant delivery area with a predominant use of red color in its
display boards. The use of styled alphabets to represent “wok” and use of the word
“China” in the restaurant's name are noteworthy. The hanging exhibits on the sides of
the main board have Chinese alphabets printed on them. These exhibits and repre-
sentations have a major role in creating Chinese ambiance in and around the
restaurant.

popularity of Chinese restaurants in Indian cities by questioning

what Chinese food in India means and the trend among restaurants
in creating “Chinese” ambiance. The discussions based on the ob-
servations are organized in two sections: (1) Indianization of Chi-
nese food and (2) creating Chinese appearance.

3. Observations

Fig. 1. Fried rice served in a bowl, with a spoon and a fork. The noticeable red color has
been added to the food. This redness is attained by adding chili-based sauces and food
color, which gives a spicy and pungent taste to the food. It is one of the characteristics
of Chinese food available in India.
Popular Chinese foods in India have certain characteristics. In
this article, the author has attempted a study of the trends and
characteristics of these Chinese foods in India.
270 J Ethn Foods 2017; 4: 268e273

3.1. Use of red

Chinese food is predominantly in red color or its variations (see

Figs. 1, 2), even though there are a few exceptions. Redness of the
food is a qualifying characteristic of the Chinese food available in
India. Sometimes, it is also brown in color. The red or brown color is
attained by the use of chili sauce, soya sauce, red chili powder, and
other food colors. Because of the use of large amount of chili or chili
extracts in the food, it tastes spicy and pungent. The use of red color
is not limited to food itself. Restaurants very commonly use red
color in their display boards and paints (see Fig. 3).

3.2. Visibility of the wok

Fig. 5. The use of special script on the display board is noticeable from the image.
“Ming Yang” is written in English alphabets but resembles Chinese in appearance
The wok and the process of cooking are mostly visible to the
because of the discontinuity of strokes in each letter. The restaurant wall has Chinese
customers. Most of the restaurateurs who serve Chinese food to alphabets on it. A wok's image is present on the main display board. These repre-
customers among lower middle-class people have a semiopen sentations symbolize Chineseness and create Chinese ambiance in and around the
kitchen where the making and processing of Chinese food is visible restaurant.
to the customers. The position of the cooking place is either at the
entrance or adjacent to the dining place, with a short wall or glass
separation. The use of wok and the action of the chefs, such as,
tossing, blending, smoking, and use of sauces, are visible to the
customers.

3.3. Food and the ingredients

Rice and noodles are the base ingredients. Other ingredients

such as capsicum, onion, boiled paneer, spring onions, eggs, semi-
cooked chicken, garlic, coriander leaves, and ginger are kept near
the chef. Salt, chili powder, turmeric powder, garam masala, chat
masala, food colors, and other flavoring substances, along with soya
sauce, red chili sauce, green chili sauce, tomato sauce, vinegar, and
different oils, are also used. These are the main ingredients in a
typical small-scale Chinese restaurant. Some precooked spice
combinations, such as a Sichuan sauce (in all Mumbai restaurants, it
is pronounced as Schezwan instead of Sichuan, except in upmarket
restaurants such as Mainland China. Sichuan refers to a region in
China), are also used in many restaurants. The Schezwan sauce with
dominant flavors of garlic and red chili is found only in India. As
mentioned previously, many of these ingredients give a generic red
color to the food. It is important to note the predominance of easily

Fig. 6. Hanging lanterns are present in front of the restaurant. The word “dragon” is
used as a part of the restaurant's name. Images of dragons are etched on the window
glasses. Chinese alphabets are etched on the main door glass. Red color is used in the
display board. This restaurant communicates Chineseness to customers through these
symbols and exhibits.

available, widely used ingredients and the absence of meat other

than chicken.

3.4. Serving utensils and cutleries

Restaurants serve Indian food in a flat circular plate, not in a

bowl. Using bowls for serving food is associated with serving Chi-
nese food in India (see Figs. 1, 2). People use spoon and fork instead
of chopsticks to eat food. Chili sauce, soya sauce, and vinegar are
kept in small bottles on the table.

3.5. Ambiance and exhibits

Fig. 4. This restaurant's entrance design replicates Chinese architecture. Dragon im-
ages are displayed on the front walls. The word “China” is used in the restaurant name.
These exhibits symbolize the availability of Chinese food in this restaurant by creating One could find several similarities other than the use of pre-
Chinese ambiance. dominant red color for walls and display boards among Chinese
 A. Sankar / Creation of IndianeChinese cuisine
restaurants in Mumbai (see Fig. 3). Some of the following symbols
are frequently used by the Chinese restaurants: random Chinese
scripts (see Figs. 5, 6), dragons (see Figs. 4, 6), Chinese lanterns (see
Figs. 3, 6), names in a special English font (see Fig. 5), images of a
wok (see Figs. 3, 5), images of Chinese temple structures (see
Fig. 4), images of a fat Chinese chef, images of bowls and chop-
sticks, and images of Buddha, etc., and the presence of predomi-
nantly Northeast Indian staff, who resemble the Chinese people, is
also common. In a way, Chineseness is conveyed to the customers
through these symbols and by employing Northeast Indian people
to serve food.
4. Discussion
4.1. Different forms of Indianization of Chinese foods
IndianeChinese food is usually customized with many Indian
spices and familiar powders; for example, the use of large amounts
of red chili powder, turmeric powder, and garam masala in noodles
served as Chinese food is not an uncommon sight in Indian streets.
This Indian customization is coupled with the use of soya sauce,
chili sauce, and other substances to give a substantial red or brown
color. The use of known spice powders and masala is a process of
familiarizing the strange fooddthe “Chinese” part of the “Chinese”
food. The novelty has been overcome by making it taste like Indian
food. In a way, altering the tastes of unfamiliar foods to familiar
tastes is a form of dealing with omnivores' dilemma [4], the tension
between neophobia and the tendency to seek out new foods. Thus,
omnivores must successfully balance curiosity and caution, and this
is as true for humans as it is for any other omnivorous animal. This
tension is one of the several deep-seated conflicts at the very
foundation of human eating patterns. All omnivores, also humans,
find ways of coping with this paradoxical juxtaposition of attraction
and repulsion [5]. Adding substances to give Indian flavor to un-
familiar food stuffs is one form of such coping actions. These actions
are noticeable in Chinese street food places where the wok and the
cooking are visible to the consumers. It has created an imagination
of what should be Chinese food, without knowing what Chinese
food actually is. This imagination itself creates a new form of food
culture, which could be termed as IndianeChinese food. It is basi-
cally an Indian customization of Chinese food. People favor such
customization, referring to it as “tastier” Chinese food, irrespective
of whether it really qualifies as Chinese food. Therefore, restaurant
owners use Indian vegetables instead of what is used in authentic
Chinese cooking, and many new dishes that may look like Chinese
food as per Indian imagination have been introduced. In most of the
IndianeChinese restaurants, food delivery is not focused on the
ethnic Chinese groups around. These restaurants are focused on
Indians who like Chinese food. Therefore, according to the target
customer group, Indianization is very much required in food.
Similarly, research on Americanization of Chinese food reported
that some of the major ingredients such as fresh bamboo shoots,
hotbed chives, garlic bolt, and wax gourd have been replaced by
carrots, snow peas, green peppers, broccoli, and mushrooms, which
are easily available in America and are familiar to the Americans [6].
Chinese restaurants are popular in America, and there are more
than 40,000 Chinese restaurants in the United States, which out-
numbers the total number of McDonald's outlets in the world [7].
This liking toward Chinese foods is not generalizable; there are a
few Americanized Chinese dishes that Americans prefer, and there
are definite Chinese foods that American people expect. Intro-
ducing a new Chinese dish or an “authentic” Chinese dish does not
find market [8]. In quantifying the perception of tastes about Indian
restaurants in the United States, South Asians and South
Asian Americans have given low scores. Josiam and Monteiro [9]
271
have interpreted that the Indian food for South Asians is not new;
therefore, they do not consider it as exotic, whereas Americans
have given lower scores because Indian food for them is unfamiliar,
spicy, and pungent. They may consider it as a second option in their
menu. However, more Americanized Chinese and Thai foods have
better reception among Americans, and the reception is limited to
known Chinese foods. In the Indian scenario, liking of Chinese food
is limited to some defined set of tastes; apart from that, Chinese
food is strange for Indians. In the following paragraphs, customer
reviews of a Chinese restaurant that appeared in one of the
restaurant-reviewing websites are provided; two reviewers shared
their experience of eating out in one of the Chinese restaurants in
Mumbai. The author has corrected spelling mistakes and modified
the sentence structure without changing the meaning.
Reviewer 1: Mind blowing Indianized (if that is a word) Chinese,
loved the food; the chili chicken fried rice was to die for. The
ambiance is nice; no air conditioning though, which is kind of a
downer. But the food made up for it. I would say if you stay around,
please do order. I am guessing they do deliver. You will not be
disappointed.
Reviewer 2: It's a small compact Chinese joint situated just on
the main road, easy to find. Being a Chinese lover, I always try
various Chinese joints, but I'm glad I came out contented with the
food, service, and the quality. Just ordered manchow soup which
had nice consistency; not too flowy; not too thick, it was perfectly
made. Only thing is it had too much garlic, as I don't eat more garlic,
it would be okay for others I believe. Next up was vegetable chopper
rice, quantity was humongous. I'm sure that's enough for three
people. Rice had less salt, oil and colordI found just to the point,
tasted really yummy; vegetable lovers must try the rice. Food was
piping hot and that's good, it shows it is freshly made, unlike other
joints where it's mostly microwaveddI feel. The noodles were
crispy the way I like. Majority Chinese restaurants have typical thick
noodles with an eggy essence, here it's different and tasty. It was so
yummy here. Nice food, try it whenever you are in a mood for some
local Chinese food.
Both the reviewers liked the Indianization of the Chinese food
available in the restaurant. In this context, Indianization in a way
defines what Chinese food is. The second reviewer claims that she
always tries Chinese food joints and mentions oil and color as two
qualifiers, which is noteworthy. It reflects an Indian understanding
of Chinese food; Chinese food is analogous to red or brown, greasy,
and hot in taste. The first reviewer is conscious of the Indianization
of the Chinese food served, but he is not concerned about the
nonauthenticity of the food, and he praises the food for its taste.
The restaurateur served what he expected as Chinese food, with an
Indianized taste. These forms of intrinsic Indianization happen to
the food itself, that is, Indianization through the ingredients and
flavors, which alters the food internally. This intrinsically Indian-
ized Chinese food is actually considered as “Chinese” food in
India and is expected to be served in a restaurant. Authenticity is
not an objective criterion but is socially constructed and linked to
expectations [6]. What is Chinese is what the customers expect as
Chinese here, which is authentic. Maybe, authenticity is not a
concern; other concerns such as taste may take precedence. How-
ever, combined foods made by blending Indian dishes with
intrinsically Indianized Chinese foods have been considered as
IndianeChinese foods. Dosa [10], a South Indian dish, is combined
with Schezwan (refers to food from the Sichuan province of China.
The reddish sauce made from red chili and garlic is widely used to
give Schezwan taste to dishes. There are a limited number of dishes
that use Schezwan sauce, called as Schezwan cuisine. Other than
dishes that use Schezwan sauce, any of the dishes in the original
Sichuan cuisine do not qualify to be called as Schezwan food in
India) to form a Schezwan dosa and is considered an
272 J Ethn Foods 2017; 4: 268e273

Fig. 7. A schematic diagram of IndianeChinese food and the process of familiarization and creation of IndianeChinese food. The diagram shows that the authentic Chinese food is
perceived as a strange food since it was originally introduced. Later, the original Chinese food with its authenticity has become an exotic and costly food in India. The widely
available Chinese food is a part of an intrinsically Indianized Chinese food which has a familiar Indian flavor and a perceived Chinese appearance. This taste and appearance have
been perceived as real Chinese food in India and are familiar to Indians. This perceived Chinese taste combined with Indian food creates another set of innovative foods referred to as
ChineseeIndian food in the diagram.

ChineseeIndian food; another example is Chinese pav bhaji [11] in
East India. These modified Indian dishes are popularized as Indi-
aneChinese food and also considered to be innovative and new
fusion cuisine. Restaurants that claim to serve authentic Chinese
food, which still remains a strange food, are considered to be an
exotic preference. Restaurants that serve authentic Chinese food
serve at a very high price with a mean cost of more than 1,000
rupees for two people in Mumbai.
IndianeChinese food and the process of familiarization and
creation of IndianeChinese food are schematically represented in
Fig. 7. The name “Chinese” in Chinese food has been retained
without change, but what qualifies as Chinese food has changed
considerably. Indianization is not limited to Chinese food; the way
Italian, Continental, and Mediterranean dishes are served in India
also follows somewhat similar trajectory on a smaller scale. Along
with that, reduced use of meat, fish, and animal fat can also be
 A. Sankar / Creation of IndianeChinese cuisine
termed as Indianization in general and vegetarianization in
particular. Similarly, McDonald's serves the Maharaja Mac with
chicken in India instead of the Big Mac which contains beef; by not
serving their famous hamburgers in India and by even separating
the vegetarian and nonvegetarian kitchens, they created an Indi-
anized version of McDonald's [12]. Difference here is that McDo-
nald's plans and decides what McDonald's should be for India and
creates menu and tastes as per that. McDonald's did not allow room
for strangeness toward food in its menu for Indian customers,
whereas authentic Chinese food had strangeness and attained so-
cially rewritten recipes, which define how Chinese food should be.
It has become a new form of cuisine, the IndianeChinese food.
4.2. Creative Chinese appearance
Chinese restaurants in India create an ambiance of Chineseness
in and around their restaurants using different methods. Other than
the qualities of the normal IndianeChinese food, these exhibits
actually communicate that it is a Chinese restaurant. From the
name board to the sauces on the table, each and every minute detail
of the restaurants creates a feeling of Chineseness to the observer.
This Chineseness, in and around the restaurants, is created through
various symbols, which may be perceived as Chinese. These could
be the use of red color, random Chinese scripts, images of Chinese
temples, paintings or statues of Buddha, symbols of a wok, pictures
of a fat Chinese chef, pictures of a dragon, and symbols of a bowl
and chopsticks. Restaurateurs use these symbols for their interior
and exterior decoration. These symbols communicate the avail-
ability of Chinese foods in these restaurants. However, the food
served is Indianized Chinese food. A restaurant space is not limited
to food; it creates a set of codes through symbolic objects, actions,
and presentations; not only do they serve food but they also serve
experiences with meanings [13]. A Chinese restaurant place actu-
ally creates a virtual China feeling with these interiors and sym-
bolization. Names of the restaurants also carry similar meanings; as
noticed by Ray [14], Indian restaurants in New York use names that
easily relate to “India,” and Chinese restaurants use Chinese names.
Eating out ethnic food other than one's own is considered as a
cultural experience. This is never limited to just tasting or eating food,
but it also extends to the experience of the ambiance and sur-
roundings as being embedded in the “other culture.” The study by
Josiam and Monteiro [9] discusses Indian restaurants in the United
States in a similar vein. The authors describe how the American
people's unfamiliarity with Indian food gives a feeling of “new cul-
tural experience of taste and ambiance,” whereas in IndianeChinese
restaurants, the unfamiliarity with food is circumscribed, and the
cultural experience is produced through the ambiance that a Chinese
restaurant creates around them. The de cor and the exhibits
contribute to creating the Chinese feel in the restaurants.
The special fonts used to display names are in the form of joined
discrete lines, which resemble Chinese characters, as in Fig. 5. These
fonts are used in the main name boards, brochures, and menu
cards. These kinds of detailed designing are recreation of “Chinese”
in the premises of the restaurant. Other symbolic representations
already described are also objects of communication of Chinese-
ness. The details of Chineseness are translated to the visual appeal,
rather than an authentic Chinese taste of the food. Chinese res-
taurants differentiate themselves from other restaurants by using
these exhibits. There is no difference in the way Chinese food is
eaten or the etiquettes are followed on the dining table. The food,
the way it is served, and the way it is eaten are all similar to an
Indian restaurant. The strangeness of Chinese food is limited to the
differences that restaurants have created through all these symbols.
View publication stats
273
5. Conclusion
Popular Chinese food served in India is not exactly the authentic
Chinese food. It is Indian food customized as per Indians' imagi-
nation and expectation of what Chinese food should be. Its color,
level of spiciness and pungentness, and the way it is served
create certain expectations on Chinese food among Indians. How-
ever, it is not considered Indian food, and it is positioned between
Indian and Chinese food categories. The blurred position of this
food category differentiates it from other foods of ethnic origin.
Therefore, it could be considered as a new cuisine, the Indian
eChinese cuisine, which is neither Indian cuisine nor Chinese
cuisine. The association of this food with Indian food is through the
Indian tastes and flavors that are intrinsically embedded in it, and
the association with Chinese food is through the appearance, some
ingredients, and the Chinese experience that dining out provides
through the Chinese ambiance in the restaurants, which is from the
exhibits that signify the “Chinese” aspect of this experience.
Therefore, the authentic Chinese foods still remain strange to the
Indian people. The intrinsically Indianized Chinese food claims the
position of Chinese food in India, and it is popular and widely
accepted as Chinese food.
Conflicts of interest
All authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.
Funding
This research did not receive any specific grant from funding
agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
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