What Is Gobi Manchurian? Indo-Chinese Food Explained

Gobi manchurian is cauliflower florets battered, deep-fried and tossed in a sauce of soy, chili, ginger, garlic and vinegar. Gobi means cauliflower. It's usually served dry as a starter, and it's crisp, salty, sour and hot.

No. It was invented in India and isn't served in China. It belongs to Indo-Chinese cuisine, developed by the Chinese community of Kolkata over roughly two centuries and adapted to Indian ingredients and tastes.

The name has nothing to do with Manchuria. It's widely credited to Nelson Wang, a Kolkata-born chef of Chinese descent, who created Chicken Manchurian in Mumbai in the mid-1970s and chose a name that sounded Chinese to Indian diners.

A distinct cuisine created by Chinese migrants, largely Hakka, who settled in Calcutta from the late eighteenth century. Lacking many Chinese ingredients, they built dishes on soy sauce, vinegar and chili with Indian levels of garlic, ginger and heat. Hakka noodles, chilli chicken, manchurian dishes and Indian-style fried rice all come from this tradition.

Usually medium to hot. The chili is added during cooking rather than served on the side, so it's built in. That said, soy and vinegar do as much work as the chili, so it's as much salty and sour as hot.

Dry is tossed in just enough sauce to coat and is eaten as a starter. Gravy has more sauce thickened with cornstarch, so the cauliflower sits in it, and it's meant to be eaten with fried rice or noodles.

Because sauce is added to a fried batter, and moisture softens the crust within minutes. It's best eaten immediately and it's a poor takeout order. Kitchens that double-fry the cauliflower and sauce it at the last second get a noticeably crisper result.

Usually, yes. The batter is typically flour and cornstarch with no egg, and the sauce is soy, vinegar and chili. Worth confirming, since some kitchens add egg to the batter.

The dry version is a starter and works best on its own. The gravy version goes with hakka noodles or fried rice. Avoid pairing it with a cream-based Indian curry, since soy and vinegar clash with that style.