Индо-китайская кухня: сплав индийских и китайских традиций

Fusion cuisine combining Indian and Chinese traditions

Indian Chinese cuisine, Chinese Indian cuisine, Sino Indian cuisine, Chindian cuisine, Hakka Chinese or Desi Chinese cuisine is a distinct style of Chinese cuisine adapted to Indian tastes, combining Chinese foods with Indian flavours and spices. Though Asian cuisines have mixed throughout history throughout Asia, the most popular origin story of the fusion food resides with Chinese labourers of Calcutta (now called Kolkata), who immigrated to British Raj India looking for work. Opening restaurant businesses in the area, these early Chinese food sellers adapted their culinary styles to suit Indian tastes. Stir fried in a wok, Sino Indian food takes Chinese culinary styles and adds spices and flavours familiar to the Indian palate.

The most popularized theory for the origins of Chinese Indian food was during the British Rule of India deep within Calcutta. Calcutta was the capital of British ruled India when it was governed by the East India Trading Company (from 1757 to 1858). The city's relation to the British crown made it a great place for material prospects and opportunity, which drew businessmen and immigrant workers from surrounding areas. Recognized as one of the first Indo Chinese restaurants in the country, the still standing corner eatery of Eau Chew gained its popularity by using the fashionable pull of exotic Chinese foods combined with non threatening familiar flavours of chili, curry, and corn starch, to attract and keep on customers.]] The Silk Road (or Silk Routes) was a network of trading posts and pathways on land and sea utilized from 130 BCE to 1453 CE spanning from China and the Indonesian islands through India and the Middle East, all the way to northeastern Africa and Italy. The significance of this route to ancient history is undeniable, the exchange of goods, diseases, and ideas from the East to West and vice versa has had a lasting impact upon the human story. Chinese and Indian merchants would carry their goods across the borders separating the two neighbouring countries: silks, rice, and crockery coming from China, with a plethora of influential spices sprouting from India. Just as the Chinese adapted Buddhist practices to their own beliefs, the two cultures adopted certain aspects of the other throughout their historical interactions and exchanges. Rice dishes cooked in Indianized Chinese woks can be found in the nation's south, and there are spices of ginger, cinnamon, and black pepper present in various Chinese culinary styles; in this way, it can be seen how the Silk Road was vital in bringing characteristics of the two cultures together. Indian and Chinese food aspects collided hundreds of years ago to form culinary traditions now inextricable with these nations; in this way, the Indo Chinese fusion cuisine could be said to have appeared long before the first Chinese settlers in Kolkata.

Geographically, India and China are neighbours; historically, the two nations are ancient empires. Two of the most populous countries in the world today, both India and China boast lengthy histories. Since the second century CE, Hindu rulers presided over Southeast Asian countries and Chinese regimes ruled the more eastern regions, such as Vietnam. Similarly, Asia's southeast was historically populated by immigrants from both China and India, namely the Han and Tamil ethnic groups who joined scattered aboriginal societies. Furthermore, now completely embedded within Southeast Asian culinary practices, Chinese cooking and eating implements such as spoons, chopsticks, and woks were other products which were introduced to the region. Evidence of Indian influence, in addition to religious philosophies and ancient architecture, can be found in the spices and flavours of Southeast Asian cooking. Spices such as turmeric, coriander, pepper, brown mustard, and ginger are present in curries throughout Southeast Asia, though each country has adapted the practice to utilize their own regional ingredients as well; most notably, Indonesian, Malaysian, Thai, Filipino, and Cambodian cuisines all have strong ties to Indian style curry flavours. Tibetan food, in addition to high altitude and harsh climates, is geographically influenced by the flavours of the countries surrounding it: notably Nepal, India, and China. Tibet is a nation heavily influenced by Indian Buddhist values (first brought in the fifth century AD), and with beliefs and ideas travels culture and food as well. With the diffusion of ingredients, culinary styles, and flavours across borders, the regions of Nepal and Tibet (as well as Bhutan) which touch both India and China inadvertently developed cuisines mixing both Chinese and Indian styles and tastes, creating yet another Indo Chinese food origin.