A new Peking order

For years, we preferred Indianised chop sewage to OG Chinese flavours. Now, five-star restaurants are putting out the real thing. It costs more, but it's worth it

- By VIR SANGHVI

There are many international cuisines that are difficult to find in India. You will not be surprised to learn that it's hard to come across a good Spanish restaurant. Or to eat Ethiopian food.

But here's one that may surprise you: It's immensely difficult to find Chinese food in India.

I see you staring at the preceding paragraph incredulously. Is this man mad? You mutter to yourself. Does he not know that there is a Chinese restaurant at every corner in every Indian city?

Bear with me. Because the truth is that India's restaurants serve what no Chinese person would recognise. Even the dishes that sound Chinese are not made the way they are made in China.

The first Chinese restaurants opened in Calcutta because there was an expat Chinese community there from the early years of the 20th century. The local Chinese worked out quite quickly that they would get nowhere by serving the food they made at home, so they adapted the menus of American Chinese restaurants and added Indian touches.

More Chicken Sweet Corn Soup is consumed in a medium-sized Indian town than is eaten in the whole of China. And though Chilli Chicken has been a menu staple in India for 60 years, it is unknown in China because it was invented in Calcutta.