This article first appeared in print and online on 14th July in the Sunday Magazine section of The New Indian Express newspaper https://www.newindianexpress.com/lifestyle/food/2024/Jul/13/diy-on-asian-griddles
Showing posts with label CHINESE CUISINE. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CHINESE CUISINE. Show all posts
Sunday, July 14, 2024
Thursday, February 22, 2024
Goan Street Food and Drink
(This article first appeared online on 21st February 2024 on Live Mint, India https://lifestyle.livemint.com/food/discover/goa-street-food-guide-111708479964448.html)
Wednesday, June 28, 2023
Asia's Love Affair with Sweet Bean Preparations
(This article first appeared online on 28th June and in print on 29th June 2023 in Mint Lounge, India https://lifestyle.livemint.com/food/discover/sweet-beans-sweets-desserts-japan-china-thailand-111687922027909.html)
Wednesday, January 4, 2023
Chinês Clandestinos--Lisbon's hidden Chinese restaurants
Saturday, April 9, 2022
Small bites, big flavours: Taste Test of Mayouchi
Asian on our mind: Taste Test of Gingko
(This review appeared in 1st April 2022 issue of the Mid-Day newspaper, India on page 21 https://www.mid-day.com/mumbai-guide/mumbai-food/article/asian-on-our-mind-23220902)
Friday, January 14, 2022
Mid-Town Master Chefs
Saturday, February 27, 2021
Healthy Chinese bhel (with recipe)
This article was published on 26th February 2021 online on NDTV Foodt //food.ndtv.com/how-to/this-healthy-chinese-bhel-makes-for-a-yummy-high-protein-snack-recipe-inside-2379422Sunday, November 1, 2020
Raw Beauties!
Showing us that there’s a whole lot more to raw fish dishes than plain old Japanese sashimi are a host of interesting and exotic preparations from as far as Peru to the Philippines. Smart Life introduces you to a few such edible wonders.
By Raul Dias
It’s safe to say that most of the world’s love affair with raw fish is rather recent. And one that is in its embryonic stages as far the average Indian diner is concerned. Once looked upon as freakishly alien and best left to where it belonged, the raw fish wonder that is Japanese sashimi has ensnared the entire world with its fresh, clean taste and healthy diet appeal.
Today, sushi bars are an ubiquitous site the world over, with patrons hungry for a piece of that freshly sliced amberjack or for a portion of those gossamer thin slivers of yellowfin tuna—all anointed with a dab of wasabi and a splash of shoyu (soy sauce). And while smoked salmon too has made its way around the world via Scandinavia in the form of gravlax and New York (where it is known as lox), our notion of raw fish preparations is still woefully confined to the above-mentioned two. Not anymore!
Digging a little deeper into the vast sphere of world cuisine shows us the existence of a whole smorgasbord (pun intended!) of raw fish dish iterations from a diverse number of places that have been enjoyed for centuries in various forms and styles.
Here are a few such raw revelations:
Poké from Hawaii
Pronounced poh-kay and meaning to “cut crosswise into pieces” this supremely healthy and tasty one bowl Hawaiian origin dish is a very simple preparation that sees short grain sushi rice that has been pre-vinegared as the base. This rice is then topped with diced raw fish and other seafood that can range from salmon and tuna to octopus and sea urchin. A splash of soy, a squirt of Japanese mayonnaise, a dusting of the Japanese spice blend called furikake, sesame seeds and dried flakes of nori (seaweed) finish off this dish that is criminally addictive and clean tasting. Interestingly, very similar to poké is the Korean dish called hoedeopbap that consists of marinated raw tuna served over rice.
Ceviche from Peru
Over the last decade or so the popularity of this paradoxically raw, yet ‘cooked’ fish dish from Peru has reached dizzying heights. This seemingly simple dish is a complex preparation made from fresh raw fish cured in citrus juices, such as lemon or lime, and spiced with ají chillies and other seasonings including chopped onions, salt, and coriander. It is the all-important citrus that cooks the fish, turning its translucent flesh into a milky opaque. Ceviche is usually accompanied by side dishes that complement its flavours such as sweet potato, lettuce, roasted corn kernels called cancha and the current hipster chic craze—avocado!
Kokoda from Fiji
Coming to us straight from the swaying coconut trees and cool waters of the lush Fijian islands, this raw fish dish celebrates two of the island’s greatest resources—coconuts and its abundant seafood. Pronounced ko-kon-da, kokoda is a refreshing salad-appetizer that’s perfect after a day swimming the cerulean ocean. Just like a ceviche, cubed white fish like snapper, walu or mahi mahi is first marinated in a citrus mixture so that it cures and cooks and then a splash of cooling coconut cream is added to give the dish its creamy consistency. Diced tomatoes and a few fronds of coriander finish off this dish that is always served in a hollowed-out coconut shell.
Crudo and Carpaccio from Italy
Literally meaning ‘crude’ or ‘raw’ in Italian, crudo is a super popular and versatile raw fish dish from Italy that can be anything from slices of raw fish drizzled over with olive oil and seasoning, to a chopped version just like a steak tartare that’s always topped with an egg yolk. Similarly, fish carpaccio is the pescatarian version of the thinly sliced raw beef dish of the same name that was invented in 1950 by Giuseppe Cipriani, founder of Harry’s Bar in Venice and named in honour of Vittore Carpaccio, the Venetian painter known for his characteristic red and white tones.
Yusheng from China
Literally meaning “raw fish” the dish is basically a Cantonese-style raw fish salad consisting of strips of raw fish mixed with shredded vegetables and a variety of sauces and condiments, among other ingredients. Also known as the “prosperity toss”, yusheng has been a Cantonese favourite for decades with the most common form being the qicai yusheng (seven-coloured raw fish salad) served in local restaurants during the Chinese New Year period. And although versions of it are thought to have existed in ancient China, the contemporary version was created and popularised in the 1960s.
Kinilaw from the Philippines
An interesting raw fish dish that is closely related to not one but two dishes on this list, kinilaw from the Philippines borrows elements from both a ceviche and a kokoda. Hailing from the Visayan region of the archipelago, the name kinilaw is derived from the word, “kilaw”, which means raw or uncooked. Just like a ceviche, the seafood is ‘cooked’ without the application of heat but is rather cured in vinegar. Additional souring agents like the native calamansi (a lime-orange like fruit), tamarind, or green mangoes are added to enhance its tartness. To complete the dish, black pepper, onions, ginger, seaweed and sliced chilies are also added. And in some parts of the country, just like a kokoda, a dash of coconut milk or cream is added to give the dish a creamy, sweetish send-off!
(A differently edited version of this piece was first published in the November 2020 issue of The Week's Smart Life magazine)
Sunday, July 19, 2020
All Tangled Up
Cutting a wide swathe across several regional Indian cuisines, with many finding a permanent position in the country’s mainstream culinary landscape, are a mind-boggling variety of ‘inspired’ noodle and dumpling preparations.
By Raul Dias
Isn’t it fascinating, how food somehow manages to find a catalytic role to play in almost every socio-political discourse drama here in India? From the kind of meat one is ‘allowed’ to eat or not, to the rather banal debate often centred around the North’s roti reverence v/s the South’s obsession with rice, we’ve been spectators to it all.
But none, perhaps, pertaining more to what we know, love and… yes, paradoxically hate as ‘Chinese food’. A cuisine that we’ve ingeniously co-opted to form a hybrid in the guise of the coriander leaf and garam masala redolent Chindian food.
In 2012, we had a khap panchayat in Haryana’s Jind district blaming the consumption of “hormonal imbalance evoking” chowmein behind the growing incidents of rape in India. Yes, try chewing on that indigestible titbit.
The most recent salvo fired against the cuisine being union minister Ramdas Athawale’s call to boycott, what he terms ‘Chinese food’, demanding that restaurants serving it should be banned. All this vilification, never minding the fact that said chowmein is as Chinese as chaat probably is. Or that another Chindian staple, chicken Manchurian was invented in Mumbai in the late 1970s by Nelson Wang, a third-generation Chinese chef born in Kolkata!
Strands of History
What is really interesting to note here is that we in India have had a tryst with Chinese cuisine way before dishes like chowmein and chicken Manchurian entered our local culinary lexicon. Unbeknownst to us and thanks to ancient international trade routes like the Silk Road and to the Chinese Buddhist scholar Xuanzang, who travelled extensively around India in the 7th century, Chinese cuisine has lent to us several regional noodle and dumpling iterations. Much like it has to Italy’s celebrated pasta repertoire. Something many believe to be a direct result of the 13th century cultural appropriations by the famous Italian explorer Marco Polo.
Speaking of Italy, we may as well set the record straight about the whole which-came-first-the-pasta-or-the-noodle conundrum. Irrefutable evidence in the form of a 4,000 year old bowl of millet noodles unearthed in an archaeological settlement in the Laija region of Northwest China has proven that most forms of noodles and dumplings—be they rolled, cut or extruded—have indeed come to the world from China.
This is exactly how one of India’s most beloved and popular vermicelli-like dried noodles that we know multifariously as seviyan in Hindi, sevai in Tamil and semya in Telugu came into being. Adapted from Italian vermicelli, also called angel hair pasta or minutelli (that was itself adapted in the 14th century from an ancient Chinese super fine rice noodle called mai fun) the rice noodle is used in both sweet preparations like kheer and payasam and in savoury ones like upma, here in India. The slightly fatter and freshly extruded idiyappam or noolputtu as it is known as in Kerala and Tamil Nadu respectively is another hybrid rice noodle that is steamed in coils and eaten with both sweet and savoury accompanying dishes like egg curry.
Similarly, the translucent, corn or arrowroot-starch noodles found at the bottom of a glass of falooda came to India from Iran, another pivotal country on the Silk Road, where they are called faloodeh. The north Indian sweet called sutarpheni is another rice-based noodle of Chinese origin that was introduced to Indian cuisine by way of the Turkish who call it pismaniye.
Adapt and Thrive
It is by turning our attention to the lesser known, more regional varieties of Indian noodles and dumplings—particularly in the high North and Northeast of the country—do we see how well the original Chinese ones have been adapted and assimilated into the culinary milieu. Take for instance the steamed Shanghainese nian gao rice dumplings made from dense rolls of pounded glutinous rice. Cooked in a warming stew along with yak meat, the kyu which is made from wheat dough is a popular dumpling in both Ladakh and Spiti and a dead ringer for the nian gao.
Chutagi another Ladakhi dumpling that came to the region via the Silk Road from Central Asia is a bow-tie shaped dumpling used in a soup that is made from meat and vegetables and similar to a thukpa. Ladakhi cuisine is also known for its sweet dumpling called pakchel mirku that is cooked into a warming dessert along with ghee and dried yak cheese called churrpi.
Assam too has its own version of the Chinese bee tai bak (rat tail) rice noodle that takes the form of anguli pitha. Named after the pinky finger (anguli) that they resemble, these extruded rice dumplings are eaten as a teatime snack when cooked with onions, green chillies and tomatoes. The chushi and jhinuk pitha originally from east Bengal are more examples of dried rice flour-based dumplings that can be reconstituted by adding them either to a savoury curry or a creamy, milk-based payesh.
This sweet-savoury adaptability is also one of the chief characteristics of the tiny ring-like dried dumplings called sarvale. Found in the cooking of Goan Muslims, sarvale are either boiled and served with a topping of scrambled eggs for breakfast or as yet another kheer-like thickened milk dessert. Substituting dairy for the thick, first extract of coconut milk is the delicious coastal Maharashtrian noodle dessert called naralyachya dudhache shiravlya where rice noodles are cooked with the coconut milk along with sugar and cardamom and served during festivals like Ganesh Chaturthi.
The Desi Twist
While most of China’s noodle and dumpling varieties are made from either rice, corn or wheat, there are a few made from legumes like the mung bean cellophane noodle called fen si. Interestingly, Indian dumpling adaptations—particularly in regions like Gujarat, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh—seem to focus on these.
With its glossy surface speckled with tempered black mustard seeds and a scattering of freshly grated coconut flesh and coriander leaves, the Gujarati khandvi made from a mixture of gram flour and buttermilk is also spread on a flat surface to set before being rolled up into bite sized morsels, much like the Cantonese dim sum dumpling called cheung fun.
Still in Gujarat, the wheat-based dumplings of dal dhokli that are submerged in a spiced lentil stew are another example of adaptation. As are other regional Rajasthani dishes like the chickpea flour dumpling strip-based besan chilla ki subzi and Varanasi’s sui mai-meets-ravioli like wheat pockets called dal ka dulha.
Wonder what Marco Polo and Xuanzang would have made (pun intended!) of these?
(An edited version of this article first appeared in the 19th July 2020 issue of The Hindu newspaper's Sunday Magazine section on page 8 (https://www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/food/all-tangled-up-the-straight-and-narrow-of-chindian-food/article32113300.ece)
By Raul Dias
Isn’t it fascinating, how food somehow manages to find a catalytic role to play in almost every socio-political discourse drama here in India? From the kind of meat one is ‘allowed’ to eat or not, to the rather banal debate often centred around the North’s roti reverence v/s the South’s obsession with rice, we’ve been spectators to it all.
But none, perhaps, pertaining more to what we know, love and… yes, paradoxically hate as ‘Chinese food’. A cuisine that we’ve ingeniously co-opted to form a hybrid in the guise of the coriander leaf and garam masala redolent Chindian food.
In 2012, we had a khap panchayat in Haryana’s Jind district blaming the consumption of “hormonal imbalance evoking” chowmein behind the growing incidents of rape in India. Yes, try chewing on that indigestible titbit.
The most recent salvo fired against the cuisine being union minister Ramdas Athawale’s call to boycott, what he terms ‘Chinese food’, demanding that restaurants serving it should be banned. All this vilification, never minding the fact that said chowmein is as Chinese as chaat probably is. Or that another Chindian staple, chicken Manchurian was invented in Mumbai in the late 1970s by Nelson Wang, a third-generation Chinese chef born in Kolkata!
Strands of History
What is really interesting to note here is that we in India have had a tryst with Chinese cuisine way before dishes like chowmein and chicken Manchurian entered our local culinary lexicon. Unbeknownst to us and thanks to ancient international trade routes like the Silk Road and to the Chinese Buddhist scholar Xuanzang, who travelled extensively around India in the 7th century, Chinese cuisine has lent to us several regional noodle and dumpling iterations. Much like it has to Italy’s celebrated pasta repertoire. Something many believe to be a direct result of the 13th century cultural appropriations by the famous Italian explorer Marco Polo.
Speaking of Italy, we may as well set the record straight about the whole which-came-first-the-pasta-or-the-noodle conundrum. Irrefutable evidence in the form of a 4,000 year old bowl of millet noodles unearthed in an archaeological settlement in the Laija region of Northwest China has proven that most forms of noodles and dumplings—be they rolled, cut or extruded—have indeed come to the world from China.
This is exactly how one of India’s most beloved and popular vermicelli-like dried noodles that we know multifariously as seviyan in Hindi, sevai in Tamil and semya in Telugu came into being. Adapted from Italian vermicelli, also called angel hair pasta or minutelli (that was itself adapted in the 14th century from an ancient Chinese super fine rice noodle called mai fun) the rice noodle is used in both sweet preparations like kheer and payasam and in savoury ones like upma, here in India. The slightly fatter and freshly extruded idiyappam or noolputtu as it is known as in Kerala and Tamil Nadu respectively is another hybrid rice noodle that is steamed in coils and eaten with both sweet and savoury accompanying dishes like egg curry.
Similarly, the translucent, corn or arrowroot-starch noodles found at the bottom of a glass of falooda came to India from Iran, another pivotal country on the Silk Road, where they are called faloodeh. The north Indian sweet called sutarpheni is another rice-based noodle of Chinese origin that was introduced to Indian cuisine by way of the Turkish who call it pismaniye.
Adapt and Thrive
It is by turning our attention to the lesser known, more regional varieties of Indian noodles and dumplings—particularly in the high North and Northeast of the country—do we see how well the original Chinese ones have been adapted and assimilated into the culinary milieu. Take for instance the steamed Shanghainese nian gao rice dumplings made from dense rolls of pounded glutinous rice. Cooked in a warming stew along with yak meat, the kyu which is made from wheat dough is a popular dumpling in both Ladakh and Spiti and a dead ringer for the nian gao.
Chutagi another Ladakhi dumpling that came to the region via the Silk Road from Central Asia is a bow-tie shaped dumpling used in a soup that is made from meat and vegetables and similar to a thukpa. Ladakhi cuisine is also known for its sweet dumpling called pakchel mirku that is cooked into a warming dessert along with ghee and dried yak cheese called churrpi.
Assam too has its own version of the Chinese bee tai bak (rat tail) rice noodle that takes the form of anguli pitha. Named after the pinky finger (anguli) that they resemble, these extruded rice dumplings are eaten as a teatime snack when cooked with onions, green chillies and tomatoes. The chushi and jhinuk pitha originally from east Bengal are more examples of dried rice flour-based dumplings that can be reconstituted by adding them either to a savoury curry or a creamy, milk-based payesh.
This sweet-savoury adaptability is also one of the chief characteristics of the tiny ring-like dried dumplings called sarvale. Found in the cooking of Goan Muslims, sarvale are either boiled and served with a topping of scrambled eggs for breakfast or as yet another kheer-like thickened milk dessert. Substituting dairy for the thick, first extract of coconut milk is the delicious coastal Maharashtrian noodle dessert called naralyachya dudhache shiravlya where rice noodles are cooked with the coconut milk along with sugar and cardamom and served during festivals like Ganesh Chaturthi.
The Desi Twist
While most of China’s noodle and dumpling varieties are made from either rice, corn or wheat, there are a few made from legumes like the mung bean cellophane noodle called fen si. Interestingly, Indian dumpling adaptations—particularly in regions like Gujarat, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh—seem to focus on these.
With its glossy surface speckled with tempered black mustard seeds and a scattering of freshly grated coconut flesh and coriander leaves, the Gujarati khandvi made from a mixture of gram flour and buttermilk is also spread on a flat surface to set before being rolled up into bite sized morsels, much like the Cantonese dim sum dumpling called cheung fun.
Still in Gujarat, the wheat-based dumplings of dal dhokli that are submerged in a spiced lentil stew are another example of adaptation. As are other regional Rajasthani dishes like the chickpea flour dumpling strip-based besan chilla ki subzi and Varanasi’s sui mai-meets-ravioli like wheat pockets called dal ka dulha.
Wonder what Marco Polo and Xuanzang would have made (pun intended!) of these?
(An edited version of this article first appeared in the 19th July 2020 issue of The Hindu newspaper's Sunday Magazine section on page 8 (https://www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/food/all-tangled-up-the-straight-and-narrow-of-chindian-food/article32113300.ece)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)