The Hindu Business Line : How Chinese is my menu?

As the globetrotting Indian learns more about various lifestyles, cultures, and of course cuisines, his taste has become more refined and palate more discerning. For such Indians, Chinese food is no longer only noodles or fried rice with chilli chicken or gobi Manchurian!

We have this on the authority of Chef Liang Xiao Qing, Executive Chinese Chef of ITC Hotels, now at The Maratha, Mumbai.

In Chennai to organise the Sichuan and Cantons food festival at the ITC’s Hotel Park Sheraton, Chef Liang recalled that when he first came to India eight years ago, the kind of Chinese food people desired or demanded was very different, and little beyond fried rice or noodles with the standard side dishes and sauces.

“But now the times have changed; people travelling to China and other countries know about authentic Chinese food. Earlier, I found not many people ordering Chinese greens, but now almost on every table there is an order for Chinese greens.” That is a proof, he adds, of how today “many, many more people want nutrition, balance, low fat. They no longer want only spicy, oily, heavy food; they are willing to experiment.”

(Chinese vegetables are usually stir-fried or steamed at a very high temperature for a short time, so they retain their nutritional value and remain crunchy. Chinese greens lend themselves well to this type of cooking.)

But isn’t Chinese food in India quite different from Chinese food in China?

“Yes, but then this is true of most places. Take, for instance, Cantonese food; when people used to this food come to Beijing, they have to adjust.”

For Indian taste

So did he have to tweak his cooking a little to suit the Indian palate?

“Well, different places have different tastes. When I first came to India I had to try and find out what kind of dishes Indians would like. So I tried some spicy dishes, with a little bit of sauce.”

But even though people are now becoming more health- and calorie-conscious, and don’t want to douse whatever they order with sauce and spice, “if somebody still wants a spicy dish, I make it.”

He explains that his restaurant at The Maratha (Pan Asian) offers all kinds of Asian cuisine including Chinese, Japanese, Thai and so on.

“So the biggest challenge is to make it all authentic… or else there is no use of coming to a place like The Maratha. You could as well go anywhere… to a place where there is some chilli sauce, soya sauce and some Chinese food. But to remain No. 1, you need standards.”

At Park Sheraton’s The Residency, which already offers a buffet of mixed cuisines, Chef Liang, arguably the most talented Chinese chef in India, brought his special touch. After a brief chat, the man who has tempted the palates of heads of State and some of the world’s richest and most powerful people like Bill Clinton, Bill Gates and the Sultan of Brunei retired to the kitchen to whip up some of his signature dishes for us.

Tofu tops

The diced chicken tossed with dry chilli, Sichuan pepper and soya was passable, and the Beijing Roast Duck, served with pan cake, cucumber, spring onion and Hoisin sauce, did not prove to be too exciting, at least for my taste buds.

The veggie of the day was fried baby corn and, just as one was wondering what all the fuss was about, came the Golden Diced Lobster with roasted sesame, cashew and garlic. A bite of the crispy, fresh and tender lobster meat and one immediately realised that such fare is not normally available at buffet spreads.

What followed was even more unbelievable. On the face of it, it was just the good old Chinese fried rice laced with prawns. But the prawns were absolutely tender and just melted in the mouth, and the non-greasy fried rice was clearly a topper. The stir-fried vegetables bore Chef Liang’s stamp and what followed was, for this writer, the best dish of the day — Stir-fried cotton tofu with black bean chilli. ( See recipe )

It is rare for non-vegetarians, when they have a choice of scrumptious lobster and delicious soft prawns, to vote for a veggie dish, but it was a clear winner!

The tofu was fresh and unbelievably soft and the black mushrooms and black bean sauce delicious. Along with the noodles that followed, most of the spread on the table spelt out the difference between Chinese food available “anywhere”, and a place with “standards”.

Guest’s special

Interestingly, Chef Liang doesn’t use olive oil for any of his cooking, and doesn’t miss the opportunity to endorse ITC’s sunflower oil — “it is very good, I use it!” — but many of his ingredients, including soya sauce, vinegar and spices are imported from China. In his sauces he tries to balance different ingredients “to give different colours and taste”.

The chef says that in recent times stir fry is getting very popular; “Chinese cuisine has a lot of variety and there are dishes on offer that are stewed, steamed, raw...”

So what are his favourites?

Like any good chef, he demurs: “Oh, that’s very difficult for me to say. People come to my restaurant and ask: What’s your speciality? But I always ask them: ‘What would you like to have? Chicken, prawn, fish; spicy, non-spicy, heavy or light… tell me your taste and I’ll make it’. That’s my speciality. If I make what I like, you might not be happy.”

Cooking for Mom and Dad

On why he chose to become a chef, he says, “When I was a child both my parents were working, and we had to make food at home for our parents. As I was the eldest, most often I had to do that and then wait for my mother and father to come back and eat what I had cooked.”

Apparently they enjoyed what he cooked and he liked doing it and hence joined a cooking school for a two-year course, after which he joined the Great Wall Sheraton in Beijing.

About eight years ago he joined ITC Hotels as Executive Chinese Chef and was a core member of the team that opened the ITC Grand Maratha Sheraton in Mumbai. He launched the hotel’s eclectic dining destination, Pan Asian, which has become a well-known brand for ITC Hotels.

He lives in Mumbai with wife and son, who has “become the first Chinese student to get admission to IIT, Bombay. No cooking for him, as he wants to become a computer engineer”.

So who cooks at home?

“Nobody, we live in the hotel,” he grins.

Try This

Stir-fried soft bean curd with black bean sauce

Ingredients:

Japanese bean curd 250 grams

Sliced fresh and black mushroom 50 grams

Chopped ginger 10 grams

Chopped garlic 10 grams

Diced spring onion 25 grams

Chilli paste 1 teaspoon

Black bean paste 1 teaspoon