From Cricket Club to National Obsession: The Unexpected Birth of Chicken Manchurian

Back in the mid-1970s, "Chinese cuisine" was just starting to find its way onto Indian menus. At the Cricket Club of India in Mumbai, a young cook named Nelson Wang was tasked with creating something "different" for a diner. Drawing on his instinct to mix Indian comfort with Chinese technique, Wang improvised a dish that would go on to redefine Indian-Chinese food.

Wang began with the familiar base of chopped ginger, garlic, and green chili sizzling in hot oil. But then he veered away from the predictable, adding soy sauce, stock, and cornflour to create a glossy, fiery, salty, and tangy sauce. Fried nuggets of chicken were folded into the sauce, and the dish was born - Chicken Manchurian.

The name "Manchurian" was not about geography, but about theatre - exotic enough to sound Chinese, catchy enough to stick in Bombay's dining circles. Word of the dish quickly spread beyond the Cricket Club's polished teak tables, and when Wang opened his own restaurant, China Garden, a few years later, Chicken Manchurian moved with him. Soon, it was on menus across India, from high-end banquets to college canteens and roadside stalls.

Manchurian worked because it spoke to the Indian palate - its crisp batter and fried texture echoed pakoras, while the familiar triad of spicy, tangy, and sweet notes powered the sauce. Soy sauce brought depth, cornflour gave sheen, and the whole dish could be pulled together in minutes. Even better, it was endlessly adaptable, with cooks adjusting the chili, ginger, or vinegar to taste.