Say, what? Indian Chinese food? Think saucy. Think chop suey. Think sweet-and-sour with a chilli kick.
Indian Chinese cuisine is said to have originated in Calcutta in the early 1900s – dishes cooked by Hakka immigrants that were gradually adapted to local Indian tastes. Today, Indian Chinese cuisine has spread all over India – and to much of Malaysia and Singapore too – but you won’t have to head overseas to try it. Hustle on down to Indian Chopsticks, set in a converted fibro cottage in Harris Park. The suburb is fast becoming a 'Little India' with Indian restaurants, dessert houses and grocery stores dotted everywhere you look.
Manchurian chicken $13.90
Manchurian chicken is the quintessential Indian Chinese dish. It’s a jumble of chicken fillets stir-fried with ginger, garlic, green chilli and fresh coriander. You can choose to have it drenched (wet) or sparse (dry) with sauce. Our waitress recommends it dry.
Chilli chicken $13.90
Chilli chicken is all about the gravy it’s drenched in – thick and soupy with slices of crunchy capsicum and plenty of soy sauce.
Sichuan lamb $13.90
American chop suey with chicken $10.90
American chop suey is as good – or as bad – as you think deep-fried noodles with a saucy stir fry and a fried egg on top could be. It’s all kinds of crunch and texture, but the sauce errs a little on the sweet side for our taste.
Gobi 65 $7.50
Vegetarians are well looked after too. The Gobi 65 is a stand-out: cauliflower florets marinated in a spicy masala and then deep-fried to a nutty crunch.
Chilli paneer $7.50
Fresh paneer cooked with capsicums and spicy chillies
Chilli paneer is also satisfying – cubes of fresh cottage cheese stir-fried with chillies, capsicum and soy.
Sweet corn soup with chicken $5.90 small
Five spice soup $4.90 small
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Indian Chopsticks
77 Wigram Street, Harris Park, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 02 9891 4177
Opening hours
Monday to Friday 5.30pm-10.30pm
Saturday and Sunday 11.30am-10.30pm
This article appeared in the April 2013 issue of Time Out Sydney in my monthly Food & Drink column Eat This! [Read online]
Read more of my Time Out Sydney reviews
Indian Chinese. Very interesting...
ReplyDeleteI've heard that Harris Park had some good Indian. Another restaurant to add to the list.
I haven't heard of the Indian Chinese fusion before. It's definitely got me intrigued. And yes, Harris Park has quite the few Indian restaurants. I'm slowly tackling them down one by one.. with this one added to the list!
ReplyDeleteBring on the deep fried veggies any day! I reckon that fried cauliflower would taste awesome!
ReplyDeleteThat looks amazing! We need more places like that up here in Brisbane!
ReplyDeleteI really need to get to Harris Park more often -- it's right on our doorstep really. I've seen an Indian Chinese restaurant in another 'burb where I used to live, and the restaurant looked SO dodgy I've been dubious about the cuisine ever since. It looks pretty good to me.
ReplyDeletethat is an interesting cusine! would love to try it out. i thought the gobi 65 was fried chicken for a sec.
ReplyDeleteIndian-Chinese food is new to me, but I love the idea of this! Two of my favourite cuisines in the one place, yes please!
ReplyDeleteooo i have never heard of Indian Chinese - looks very interesting! will have to try this next time i am in Sydney :)
ReplyDeleteApparently I'm not the only person who had never heard of Indian-Chinese! I guess if there's Peruvian-Chinese, anything is possible :)
ReplyDeletegreat to hear about this. I am sure loads of Indians settled in Sydney would love this.
ReplyDeleteResponding to some of the comments here, no Indian Chinese is not 'fusion'.
It's Chinese cooking as remembered by immigrants and then mutated over the years as locals began to cook it
A parallel would be the Indian food that you get in Australia
woah, deep fried cauliflower! ^^
ReplyDeleteanything deep fried is filled with goodness HAHAHHA!
haven't heard of chop suey in so long!! HAHAHA!!
- Cassie
Mmmm yum! looks interesting.. They need a cross between Chinese Fried Rice and Biryani!
ReplyDeleteMaybe a trip to Harris Park is in order
ReplyDeleteI live in Calcutta (Kolkata now) and I have to say, nothing beats Calcutta Chinese when you eat it straight off the wok. Fresh produce, crisp ingredients, and perfectly done meat says it all. However what I see here is not really to my liking. A Calcutta Chinese restaurant will NEVER harbor Gobi 65. Its essentially a South Indian dish.
ReplyDeleteThe Sweet corn chicken soup is quite popular here, but a true-blood Calcutta Chinese restaurant must have Thai Soup (that is what it should be written on the menu), consisting of fat shreds of chicken, prawns/crabs, cilantro in a rich, thick broth and some MSG thrown in, because Chinese food here is incomplete without MSG.
And also Thread Chicken and Spring Chicken. Two Calcutta Chinese staples. I saw Manchurian and Chilli Chicken, which are the flagship notes, but the menu should have Chilli Garlic Pepper Chicken to really up the amp, so as to say.
Chilli Chicken here, btw, comes in two versions -gravy and dry. The dry one tosses fresh capsicum, onions, green chillies with battered and fried chicken, sugar, soy sauce and shaoxing wine, and serves it piping hot.
:) I do hope one day you would come here to Kolkata/Calcutta, and sample the original. Although, this alooks nice too.
Still getting my head around Indian Chinese. Looks good though and is definitely worth trying.
ReplyDeleteYum! I really must take another visit to Harris Park - so many amazing fascinating restaurants to explore.
ReplyDeletehmmmm gloopy chicken corn soup..... The Pom will love it! LOL
ReplyDeleteWoWWW! When I first saw the food images, I felt so hungry in an instant.. Lol! The foods are very pleasant in the eye and looks really delicious, especially the Chilli paneer.. Love it!
ReplyDelete