Indian-Chinese Cuisine
Spicy Fusion Food Melded From Two Cultures
I had the opportunity recently to taste a type of Chinese food that I haven't tried before: Hakka-Indian cuisine.
Here in Toronto, the "Danforth Dragon" (located on the Danforth at Jones) has been opened for about six years. It sits in a plain but well-decorated spot along the city's Greek town area. I suggested to a friend recently that we finally plunge our tongues into this unique blended fare.
MASSIVE MIGRATION
So, who are the Hakka? It's likely that much of the Chinese food served around the world has an Hakka influence. They have been the far-seeking migrants of China, searching for better lands to settle in for almost 2,000 years.
If you'd like to know more about Chinese restaurants, take a look at Mary Luz Meija's conversation with filmmaker Cheuk Kwan about his documentary series "Chinese Restaurants."
History books say the Hakkas are an ethnic group of Han Chinese who settled the area of northeast China known as Manchuria. When Genghis Khan moved in during the 13th century, the Hakka packed up and left for southeast China (Jiangxi, Fujian and Guangdong). They were called "Hakka" by the locals.
Over the centuries, the Hakka left the motherland for Malaysia, northern India, Pakistan, the Caribbean, North and South America, Europe and East Africa.
About seven per cent of the 1.2 billion Chinese identify themselves as Hakka. I am, in fact, one-quarter Hakka.
Hakka men tended towards careers in education and service in the military. Consequently, Hakka women did a large share of the farming. That's probably why Hakka women rebelled against the trend towards foot-binding in China (You Go, Girl!).
Because the Hakka were forced to settle in less-than-ideal lands, their diet relied heavily on dried and preserved ingredients such as fermented bean curd and salty mustard greens.
COMMON HAKKA FOOD
Some traditional Hakka dishes include:
- Beef ball soup in clear broth with lettuce
- Duck stuffed with seasoned sticky rice
- Fried pork with fermented beancurd
- Stuffed tofu cubes: usually minced pork and herbs put inside and then fried until golden
- Sliced pork with preserved mustard greens served in a dark soya/sugar sauce
By the way, if you're wondering what kind of liquor to pair with this food, Alan Boehmer has a great article on wines for Asian foods.
WHAT TO EAT
The dishes from "Danforth Dragon" harken to the Hakka communities of Bombay and Calcutta. My hungry friend and I ordered pakoras, chili tiger shrimp balls, crispy ginger chicken, Jeera beef and Szechuan eggplant. It was more than enough to feed four people.
The pakoras are a terrific deal: about six large meatball-sized rounds filled with cumin-spiced chicken, red chilis and just a smidgen of flour. My dining buddy and I agreed that they had a tandoori taste. She declared them: "fabulous." The shrimp balls were equally as good, chock full of shrimp, basil and green chilis. Jeera beef reminded us of Ethiopian tibbs - chili-marinated beef dry-fried in a cast iron pan. It was delicious but had a metallic aftertaste.
The eggplant was the usual slippery concoction in black bean sauce and the ginger chicken was pretty much garden variety Chinese.
Other interesting Hakka-Indian dishes I'd like to try next time include:
- Chili-fried tofu, tossed with green chilis, onion and coriander
- Hakka Chow Mien, home-made noodles with shrimp, chicken, bean sprouts soaking in a special sauce
- Manchurian Tiger Shrimps/Fish/Squid, cooked with green chilis, coriander, ginger and garlic sauce
- Spicy Pork Egg Roll, curry-flavoured minced pork, green peas, onion and coriander
Next week, I'll provide a recipe for Green Chili Chicken.
An FYI here: Back in 1999, Dr Sun Yat-sen (who served as provisional president of the republic after the fall of the Manchu), Deng Xiaoping and Lee Kuan Yew (the man who lead Singapore to independence), all Hakkas, were three of the four Chinese on Time magazine's list of "The 20th Century's 20 Most Influential Asians."
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