Chicken Noodles

The story of the ubiquitous noodle well predates Marco Polo’s travels along the Silk Route. Though some would unequivocally suggest that the noodle is of Chinese origin, the presence of the Indian Ragi (or finger millet) has long negated the above theory. Whether one could consider ragi a type of noodle or not is a whole other debate. The presence of ragi in Indian cuisine dates back to 2300 BC, and therefore, precedes the presence of Chinese noodles in culinary history. However, some accounts state that noodles were a part of Indian foods almost 4,000 years before our presence.

The birth of noodles in Chinese and Italian cultures was out of respect.

The long strips of floured straws were invented as a means to express love, gratitude and good wishes to family, friends and other dear ones. The one-pot food rituals were established and put in place as a mark of communal bonding and harmony. The act of “sitting around” the dish and consuming it together promoted kinship and camaraderie. With the trade routes and spice routes across Tibetan borders into India, the Chinese favourite made its way into the subcontinent, promptly picked up by locals. With easily available meats like lamb, pork or even yak, these long, cylindrical thin strips were boiled and brewed in a delicious broth of meats, vegetables and spices like lemongrass, basil leaves, black peppers and red chillies. On more flat land, the meat options of beef, chicken and goat were available, giving rise to the immensely popular Chicken Noodles.

The subcontinent (through its intense influence from Tibet, its own north-eastern states like Mizoram, Nagaland, Manipur and Sikkim) has curated innumerable versions of the noodles, mostly Indianising it with a generous dash of Ajinomoto (a Japanese seasoning used extensively in noodle dishes) and other spices.

Chicken Noodles have since taken centre-place when it comes to Indian Chinese cuisine. The perfect offspring to two very rich culinary histories, Chicken Noodles is our very own creation, with finely chopped vegetables like cabbage, beans, carrots, and sometimes, even mushrooms. Shrimps, squids and other variants of meat garnishing aside, the Chicken Noodles consist of chunks of chicken meat that marries well in light marinade of soy and sweet chilli sauces.

From Sikkim to Nagaland, every state has a special way of cooking the Chicken Noodles. In fact, the Kolkata variant of the dish has garnered popularity in the recent past, with locals proudly claiming their version to be superior to the one available in China itself (which is scarce on the other spice quotients and has a heavy hand of red Sichuan chillies instead).