Singapore warms to fiery Indian Chinese cuisine

By Gillian Murdoch

SINGAPORE (Reuters Life!) - Stir-fried naan, or a Peking-style samosa?

To purists, and the uninitiated, the idea of Indian Chinese cuisine can sound suspiciously like the sushi taco -- a fusion step too far, that risks ruining two of the world's best-loved cuisines in one fell swoop.

But as restaurants dedicated to mixing the two neighbours' recipes take hold even in fussy foodie haven Singapore, "Chindian" cuisine is winning over sceptics and carving its own niche.

First cooked up in India's only Chinatown in Kolkata about 100 years ago, Indianised Chinese food was created by Hakka and Cantonese Chinese immigrants who worked in tanneries on the city's east side.

They added Indian spices such as turmeric, cumin and coriander to traditional Chinese dishes, and then whacked in some chili, to satisfy Indian palates which still found them too bland otherwise.

In doing so they created a cuisine that has become popular in its own right in Indian metropolises from Mumbai to Delhi.

The genre's new classics include Manchurian chicken, marinated in soy sauce and vinegar and stir-fried with spring onions, honey, and sesame seeds, and crispy noodles topped with "American Chop Suey" -- sauteed vegetables such as broccoli, mushrooms and carrots.

Now the concept, as Chindia-watching geopolitical analysts would have it, is making a bid for world domination and going global.