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Indo-Chinese stir-fried noodles

Chinese by Indians. A simple yet strange concept, I was introduced to this cuisine when my friend Iris returned from a year in India. It was one of her favorite things to eat there. It came to into existence thanks to Chinese who migrated to India, and adopted their native cuisine to suit the local palate. I was inspired to try it myself by a post on Hakka noodles by Soma on eCurry.

What makes this dish explicitly Chinese? Well, there are the egg noodles and the tofu, as well as the soy sauce, sesame oil and sugar. What makes it Indian? There’s the cilantro, the tamarind and the tomatoes. The rest of the ingredients can be found in both cultures.

What distinguishes this from another east-west fusion dish? Couldn’t this same dish have been made, say, by Westerners cooking Thai? It seems so to me, at least. Particularly because this recipe is my interpretation of Indo-Chinese dishes. Indo-Chinese by a Westerner? That definitely describes it.

But regardless of how you look at its cultural identity, this is a fabulous combination of flavors — tart from the tamarind, sweet from the sugar, salty from the soy and spicy from the chili (all key flavors in Thai cooking, mind you). Plus, it’s rich from the plump egg noodles, and chock full of vegetables. In short, it’s now one of my favorite ways to stir-fry egg noodles. Continue reading Indo-Chinese stir-fried noodles …

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