How ‘Chinese’ is gobi manchurian, and why did a Goan fair ban it?

Stirring quite the pot, North Goa’s Mapusa Municipal Council recently passed a unanimous resolution banning the sale of gobi manchurian at roadside stalls during the five-day annual fair at the Bodgeshwar temple zatra (fair) in Mapusa.

Gobi manchurian — essentially fried cauliflower (gobi) florets tossed in a ‘Manchurian’ red chilli masala sauce — is an Indian-Chinese staple. During the open air temple fair in Mapusa, at least 35 stalls usually serve the dish.

Why was gobi manchurian banned during the fair?

Councillor Tarak Arolkar, who drafted the resolution, told The Indian Express that the dish poses a serious health hazard as it is prepared under “unhygienic conditions in roadside stalls” during the fair.

“Vendors add synthetic colours, Ajinomoto [monosodium glutamate or MSG], and poor-quality sauces… made from a powder which contains reetha [Indian soapberry, often used in shampoos and detergents ],” he said.

Why was the dish specifically targeted?

Priya Mashal, chairperson of Mapusa Municipal Council, said that the council received complaints about stalls preparing the dish in unhygienic conditions, leading the civic body to intervene.

“The ban was imposed only on stalls selling gobi manchurian for the zatra. Even during the feast at Milagres Church in Mapusa recently, we restricted the sale of the dish at roadside stalls,” she said. Notably, with regards to banning other stalls, she said the council would respond to complaints “on a case-to-case basis”.

In Opinion | Express View | Target: Gobi Manchurian

Some believe behind the specific targeting of gobi manchurian stalls in the fair may lie prevalent anti-outsider sentiments in the state.

“A lot of vendors selling gobi manchurian at stalls are not natives of Goa… there is often a sentiment that the culture of another place may come in and alter its character,” Karan Manavalan, chef-owner of a restaurant in Goa, told The Indian Express. “In Goa, gobi manchurian has become popular over the years especially among the vegetarian tourist crowd… There is no hygiene issue in the preparation of this dish,” he said.

In fact, this is not the first time gobi manchurian has been targeted. In 2022, the state Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) had issued a circular to the Mormugao Municipal Council in South Goa to restrict the number of stalls selling gobi manchurian during the fair of Shree Damodar temple in Vasco.

And what is gobi manchurian, and how did it come about?

Vir Sanghvi, writer and food critic, told The Indian Express that gobi manchurian is the vegetarian version of chicken manchurian, a dish restaurateur Nelson Wang claims to have invented in the 1970s.

“Till that time, most Chinese restaurants in India were run by third-generation Chinese from Calcutta, who had never been any further east than Chowringhee. They served a very bland kind of meal never really caught on in much of India,” Sanghvi explained. The idea of teekha (spicy) Chinese, with its signature masalas finally launched the cuisine to national popularity.

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“Chicken manchurian, made with soya sauce and masala, was created in the 1970s to feed Indians, who wanted to taste spicy Chinese,” he said.  It made waves after arriving at the national capital where it then laid the foundations of the Punjabi-Chinese cuisine — basically spicy masala Chinese food and red sauce.

“Since it was so popular, people tried doing vegetarian variations. In Delhi, paneer manchurian was tried. But, in the south gobi manchurian was a preferred alternative, since South Indians do not like paneer as much as Punjabis,” Sanghvi said.

Thus, gobi manchurian probably came about sometime in the 1980s. It remains especially popular in the South.

Is the dish ‘Chinese’?

Like much of what Indians consume as Chinese food, gobi manchurian is very much an Indian creation.

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Chef Manvalan, recounting a trip to China, said that his father was astonished to learn that gobi manchurian was not on any restaurant menu. “We went to Shenzhen in 2008… my father would order chicken manchurian and gobi manchurian. But the chefs there had never heard of these ‘Chinese’ dishes,” he said.

“I don’t know whether they eat gobi in Manchuria,” food historian Sohail Hashmi told The Indian Express. “They eat a lot of meat [beef, pork, chicken, fish,], at times cooking vegetables with it, but that does not look or taste like what is served in India… Gobi manchurian can be described as ‘Chinjabi’ – a mix of Punjabi and Chinese,” he said. Hashmi suggests that Indian ‘Chinese’ food has drawn more from the north and north-east Indian food, than actual Chinese.

As Sanghvi said: “Chinese people, when they come here, are freaked out when they learn about this dish.”

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