From the nostalgia-coated chilli chicken-fried rice combo served at dimly-lit diners to the fiery Schezwan paneer rolls doled out at roadside stalls, Chinese food is ubiquitous. And so, recently, when Union Minister of State Ramdas Athawale called for a ban on Chinese food, Twitterati jumped to the defence of the foreign cuisine, pointing out its Indianisation into what's now called Chindian.

But how did this take place? Food anthropologist Kurush Dalal points out that when the Chinese came to Mumbai in the beginning of the 20th century to work in different industries, they needed their own food. "In the process, many of them set up their own shops. However, typically, Chinese food is bland, which doesn't work well for Indians who like spicy food. Also, they had to make do with available raw materials. So, they came up with the combination of fat, starch and spices to tweak their food for Indians," says Dalal, giving us the example of how Nelson Wang, of SoBo's China Garden, devised the Manchurian sauce by mixing Chinese and Indian spices, including kothimir (coriander).