These don’t bear even the remotest resemblance to restaurant staples like manchow soup, fried rice and chilli paneer

Steaming hot

Chinese cuisine is extremely popular in India. Any town or city worth its name will have at least a couple of Chinese restaurants. Even then, Kolkata hogs the limelight for offering the most ‘authentic’ Chinese food in the country. For good reason. This is where the first batch of Chinese from the mainland came to settle down during the British
colonial days. Calcutta, as it was known till recently, was the capital of the British Indian empire till 1911. In colonial times, the Chinese community was concentrated in old China Town in central Kolkata. Later, many of them moved to the eastern part in Tangra, now a hub of Chinese restaurants.

Only for early birds

Coming to Chinese food, Kolkata has another unique institution — an authentic Chinese breakfast, perhaps not found anywhere else in India. To get a taste, head to Sun Yat Sen Street behind Podder Court, in the area generally referred to as Tiretti Bazar. For this, you have to start early. By 8 am on weekdays and somewhat stretched to 9 am on weekends, the street vendors wrap up their makeshift stalls. They are not fancy restaurants, but Chinese women sitting on stools by the street-side and you have to enjoy the food, standing, buffet style. The not-so-large menu consists of freshly made home-cooked food, with some items you will not find in the Chinese restaurants dotting the city. By the way, traditionally, the Chinese are not the ‘breakfast type’, unlike what is common to people enjoying Continental, English, or even Indian style food in the morning. They like fresh vegetables for their dishes for which they visit the morning market and while going around shopping, they also catch up some hot soup or snacks. Tea, though a ubiquitous part of
the day for most of the Chinese, is not usually preferred at breakfast. Instead, a variety of soups takes its place. As ovens are not used in traditional Chinese cooking, the snacks are either fried or steamed. A light soup with fish balls or dumplings is quite famous here. People stand around a table on stands and slurp in appreciatively as the cook-cum-vendor ladles out bowl after bowl of the steaming soup. Let the soup work up an appetite and meanwhile, step into a shop called Hap Hing, an institution by itself. The family shop was started way back in 1934 by a newly arrived family from the Canton province. All around the shop are symbols of Chinese culture and mementoes — Chinese deities, Chinese calendars, even an abacus, dark and smooth with long use. It is a good place to buy home-made rice noodles, sauces of various kinds, ginseng, authentic herbs and jasmine tea imported from China, Chinese soup bowls and wooden chopsticks. Outside in the small market that springs up in the morning, you will discover less familiar herbs, giant sticks of celery, home-made strings of sausage, etc.

Fillings galore

Some of the unusual food items in this place are Wu Yang, salted yam, and Lope Yang, rounds of savouries stuffed with turnip. There are also sweet snacks like Chintoy — sticky rice dumplings topped with white sesame seeds, soft inside and golden brown outside. One of the items in great demand here is the steamed bao which many mispronounce as pao, soft Chinese buns stuffed with a variety of fillings — minced pork, fish or a complex vegetable mix using the trimmings from herbs and Chinese greens mixed with fungus, sweet plum stuffing, etc. The old-style steaming vessels make sure that customers get them warm and meltingly soft. You can also gorge on momos stuffed with prawn mix, chicken or pork and served with home-made sauce. At the bazaar, you can stand on the street and have your fill of steamed bao packed with onions, celery, boiled eggs and diced chicken, puff pastries with pork or mutton mince and diced coconut, pork or prawn mince on toast, and spring rolls stuffed with celery, spring onions and pork. These don’t bear even the remotest resemblance to restaurant staples like manchow soup, fried rice and chilli paneer.