Key Points
Indo-Chinese cuisine developed in colonial-era Kolkata as Chinese migrants adapted Cantonese and Hakka cooking to Indian tastes, ingredients and spice preferences.
Dishes such as chilli chicken, Manchurian and Hakka noodles were created for Indian palates and later spread nationwide through street food and restaurants.
While India’s Chinese population has declined sharply since the 1960s, Indo-Chinese food remains one of the country’s most popular and enduring cuisines.
Indo-Chinese cuisine occupies a unique place in India’s food landscape. It is instantly recognisable yet difficult to categorise, familiar but not traditional. Found everywhere from five-star hotel menus to roadside carts, its defining features are bold sauces, generous spice, and wok-fried techniques adapted to Indian sensibilities. Though often labelled “Chinese food” in India, the dishes bear little resemblance to everyday food in China. Instead, they reflect a century-long process of cultural negotiation between migrant communities and local tastes.
At its core, Indo-Chinese cuisine is a product of adaptation. Chinese cooking techniques such as stir-frying in a wok were combined with Indian ingredients and aromatics – adapted to the local palette. The result was a cuisine that felt exotic enough to be exciting, yet familiar enough to be comforting.
The story of Indo-Chinese food begins in late 18th century Kolkata. The West Bengal capital, then Calcutta, was a magnet for traders and migrant labourers thanks to its status as the capital of British India, a major port city and administrative centre.
In 1778, the first recorded Chinese settler, Tong Achew, arrived and established a sugar mill outside the city, bringing Chinese workers with him. Over the decades, waves of migrants followed, primarily from southern China.
These communities were not homogeneous. Cantonese migrants found work as carpenters, Hakka migrants in shoemaking and tanneries, and others as dentists or small traders. Food, however, became a shared livelihood across groups, especially for families. Small eating houses were set up to serve Chinese workers living in the city. These early kitchens cooked food that closely resembled what migrants ate back home: light, minimally spiced and ingredient-driven.
Kolkata’s early Chinese neighbourhoods gradually took shape around these enterprises. Central Kolkata’s Tiretti Bazaar emerged as the city’s original Chinatown, where morning markets and breakfast stalls sold steamed buns, pork preparations and soups. Later, Tangra in eastern Kolkata became a second Chinatown, closely linked to leather tanneries run by Hakka Chinese.
The transformation of Chinese food in India can be attributed to two factors: necessity and pragmatism.
As migrants settled into the subcontinent, ingredient stocks began to dwindle and trade routes could only supply so much. So, with no other option, Chinese migrants had to incorporate regional ingredients into their dishes. Then, Indian customers started frequenting these eateries. And what they encountered did not always suit local tastes. Traditional Cantonese cooking, with its emphasis on freshness and restraint, was often perceived as bland by Indian diners accustomed to spice and richness.
Chinese cooks responded pragmatically. To survive economically, they adapted. Sauces became thicker and spicier. Chillies were added liberally. Oil was used more generously. Cornstarch was employed to create gravies that clung to rice and noodles. Indian vegetables and aromatics entered the wok.
Restaurants such as Eau Chew, established in Kolkata in the early 1920s, became key sites of this culinary evolution. While still rooted in Chinese techniques, they began offering dishes that bridged the gap between cuisines. Over time, an entire repertoire of hybrid dishes emerged, designed not to replicate Chinese food, but to satisfy Indian expectations of flavour, texture and abundance.
This process was gradual rather than deliberate. There was no single moment when Indo-Chinese cuisine was invented. Instead, it evolved through countless small adjustments made by cooks responding to customers.
Some of the most iconic Indo-Chinese dishes were created decades after the first Chinese settlers arrived. By the mid-20th century, a distinct style had taken hold in Tangra, where former tannery workers turned to running restaurants after the leather industry declined.
This Tangra-style food was bolder, heavier and more commercial, designed for large groups and celebratory dining. It was here that many of the dishes now considered staples gained popularity: chilli chicken, chow mein loaded with vegetables, sweet-and-sour gravies, and deep-fried appetisers coated in sauce.
The invention of Manchurian-style dishes in the 1970s marked a turning point. Created by a Chinese-origin chef in Mumbai, Manchurian involved batter-frying chicken or vegetables and tossing them in a soy-chilli-garlic sauce thickened with cornstarch. It quickly became a sensation and remains one of the most recognisable Indo-Chinese preparations today, especially in its vegetarian forms.
Similarly, ‘Schezwan’ sauce, an Indian interpretation bearing little resemblance to Sichuan cuisine, became a defining flavour. Made from dried red chillies, garlic and oil, it found its way into noodles, fried rice, paneer dishes and even Indian snacks, illustrating how thoroughly Indo-Chinese flavours had entered the mainstream.
By the 1970s and 1980s, chefs trained in Bengal’s Chinese kitchens began moving to cities such as Mumbai and Delhi. With them travelled the Indo-Chinese repertoire. What had once been a regional speciality became a national cuisine.
Indo-Chinese food thrived because it fit neatly into India’s emerging culture of eating out. Its rice-and-gravy format suited family dining, its flavours appealed across regions, and its vegetarian adaptability made it accessible. Even restaurants serving Indian food began adding “Chinese” sections to their menus, cementing the cuisine’s place in everyday dining.
Street food further accelerated its spread. Mobile carts serving chow mein, fried rice and Manchurian brought Indo-Chinese flavours to neighbourhoods and small towns. Sauces such as green chilli and Schezwan became pantry staples, used far beyond Chinese-style cooking.
While Indo-Chinese food flourished, the Chinese community that created it began to shrink. Relations between India and China deteriorated sharply after the 1962 Sino-Indian war. Thousands of Chinese-origin Indians were detained, deported or pressured to leave. Businesses suffered, and many families sought refuge in countries such as Canada and the United States.
From tens of thousands at its peak, Kolkata’s Chinese population has fallen to a few thousand. Many historic restaurants have closed or changed hands. Younger generations often chose different careers or left India altogether.
Yet the cuisine endured independently of the community. Today, most Indo-Chinese restaurants in India are Indian-owned and staffed. The food has become detached from its origins, absorbed fully into India’s culinary identity.
Indo-Chinese food is now one of India’s most democratic cuisines, eaten across regions, classes and generations. It has also travelled with the diaspora, appearing in restaurants abroad that recreate Kolkata-style Chinese flavours for global audiences.
At the same time, India’s food scene has diversified, with more regional Chinese cuisines and pan-Asian dishes gaining visibility. Yet the appeal of Indo-Chinese remains strong and distinct from traditional Chinese food. For many Indians, it is comfort food, tied to memories of family outings, celebrations and street-side indulgence.
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