Seeing beyond Chop Suey

Recently, Li Ping Lo, an expat, lectured a small group at The American Centre about what Chinese food really is. For those who think this is a rather ‘basic’ question — given that Chinese food restaurants are popular in almost every cosmopolitan city in the world — Lo had a few surprises up her sleeve.

“Offhand, what is ‘Chinese’ for Mumbaikars — Hakka noodles and lollipops? Well, these dishes don’t exist as ‘Chinese food’ in, say, the US, just like their Lou Mei — a noodle dish made from left-over animal parts — and chicken wings aren’t popular in this city,” says Lo, whose parents owned a Chinese restaurant in the Washington, DC for nearly 30 years.

The irony, of course, is that all four dishes are far from authentic. “We have to adapt and innovate because regional Chinese cuisines such as Hunan or Cantonese aren’t likely to find acceptance in their original form,” says chef Peter Ho, who started working at The Great Wall, The Leela Kempinski’s oriental restaurant three years ago. The restaurant specialises in Cantonese dishes. Interestingly, a few years ago the restaurant was well-known for having a number of Hunan dishes. But these have now been taken off the menu. “Hunan cuisine is dry, hot and oily,” says Ho.

Authentic Cantonese dishes, on the other hand, use even ginger and spring onions sparingly. They rely on the animal’s natural flavour, like a steamed fish that derives its flavour from the freshness of the fish cut only minutes before serving. “The Cantonese ritual of choosing the fish from a glass tank you’re about to eat may not go down well with many cultures, hence the tinkering,” says Ho.

The boiled chicken in India will be spicy unlike its authentic form.
He explains that Chinese soups are clear or diluted. The thickness, he adds, has come from localisation of the cuisine in cities across the world. “The Chinese stir fry the vegetables — what we do here would be ‘overcooking’ according to them,” he adds.

The Chinese approach to food — of relying on the animal’s subtle, natural flavour rather than masking it with the use of heavy spices — can be traced back to centuries. Given their tumultuous history of wars, famines and revolutions, the Chinese found ways to make any part of an animal taste good, even their noses and feet. “The Chinese consider their tastes highly evolved; they celebrate food in their poetry and consider eating a sacred ritual,” explains Lo. In China, when fish is served, it is considered honourable to be offered the first bite. The person eating it, on the other hand, must eat the head only, because the fish’s cheeks are most tender. Flipping the fish over is considered rude.

“The Chinese immigrated to the San Francisco during the Gold Rush in the 1840s, and set up restaurants in a culture suspicious of their ‘strange’ tastes and smells. They obviously couldn’t let the cuisine remain so ‘Chinese’. They experimented with flavours and spices and that was how Chop Suey — meat chops and vegetables in brown sauce — became a rage in the US.” Chinese cuisines like the Sichuan are known for their boldness, adds Lo, something that cannot be expected to take off everywhere.

This month, chef Dilip Ghewade is trying to change the not-so-bold tag. The Asia Seven chef plans to serve Peking Duck at his restaurant “the way it should be.” Peking Duck, which has become the national symbol of China, is a dish where the duck is served whole and is loved for the thin, crispy skin. It is famous for being carved in front of the diners. “People want to experiment and I’m confident doing this the traditional way will be appreciated,” he says.

But ultimately when it comes to Chinese cuisine, experimentation is the norm rather than exception. Lo remembers how a chef in Hong Kong twisted Chinese concepts much to the guests’ surprise.

‘At his fine dining restaurant, he served dim sums like steamed beef balls and even served foie gras. A traditional dish like pork sausages and rice was changed where the sausages were put in cones made of rice to resemble ice cream. The future of Chinese lies in fusion and experimentation from breaking conventional techniques, not as much in going back to the traditional approach,” says Lo.