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I do this too. Sometimes if I’m lucky they have an old FB page with an outdated menu on it.
If I’m alone, I don’t care and I just give it a chance and wing it. If others are involved, I’ll swing by a day or few hours before and see if I can get a current paper menu or photo the wall menu.
Chinese food in Ecuador was amazing. Pizza, though, was very different.
I went to an Indian lunch buffet with a friend of mine who grew up in India. According to him it was a mix of authentic dishes from North India, Mughlai, Haryani and a bit of Bihari. So he encouraged me to try small portions of a bunch of dishes and then we got to the end of the second huge steam table and it was a couple of what looked like Chinese food. I was kind of confused so I asked if that was Indian food. And he laughed at me and said something along the lines of “Do you think Americans are the only country that has fake Chinese food?” I tried a couple of them and it was like eating Chop Suey seasoned with Five Spice.
I imagine there are fairly authentic Chinese restaurants in India but there are also Indian-Chinese fusion cafes kind of like the American-Chinese fusion cafes in the US. Which is kind of cool.
The Chinese food made for the Indian client base with a taste for the Indian-style Chinese cuisine is Hakka food, originally made by the Han Chinese who work outside China and Hong Kong.
I’m not sure where you live. There are Hakka Chinese restaurants serving Hakka dishes in many big cities in North America and elsewhere- which are not fake Chinese- they are diaspora Chinese dishes. The restaurants often serve both Chinese and Indian dishes.
There are at least a dozen good Hakka Chinese restaurants in the Toronto area. Some favourite dishes are crispy ginger beef, and chili chicken.
Here’s a recipe for the Chilli Chicken at a popular Toronto restaurant. The author is a former Chowhound named Suresh Doss.
That makes sense! Thanks for the info. I was in the Washington DC metro area at the time (1990’s) and we had a strong Indian community even back then. Apparently we had a strong Hakka community as well.
Now I have to check out your link to the article.
I really like the ginger beef that’s served in Toronto’s restaurants, which is almost identical to Calgary’s Ginger Beef, another dish created by diaspora, but in Calgary
Here is a little more about the Hakka diaspora, in Singapore & Malaysia. [Penang] Hakka (客家菜) dinner at Lao Hakka, Penang Chinese Swimming Club.
Indo-Chinese food is well known in Mumbai. And Mumbai street food restaurants in the UK will usually have items on tier menu. My favourite local place has, amongst others, their take on Hakka Noodles and Gobi Manchurian.
I am trying to find a place with Hakka dishes near where I will be for lunch tomorrow and Bansari in Fairfax County looks like a close match. I may just try the Hakka noodles, either veg or chicken… I don’t get back to the DC metro area too often now that I live out on the Chesapeake Bay so fitting in a new cuisine will be a win-win for me! Though Harters mention of the Gobi Manchurian may be represented on the Indo-Chinese part of the menu of Bansari, as well…
Hope you enjoy it! I was thinking of trying 2 Hakka restaurants I haven’t tried in southwestern Ontario for takeout tonight. I am leaning towards a few dishes, including Chicken Manchurian, Chilli Shrimp and deluxe Hakka Noodles.
Indo Chinese food is an old and big tradition across most Indian cities, especially Kolkata
The diaspora Chinese communities in India date back centuries and really took off in the 18th century, especially in ports e.g. Kolkata, Chennai (Madras), etc. In Kerala, Chinese style fishing nets are still common, woks (called Kadhai or Vaanli elsewhere in India) are called Cheena Chatti (China pots), some vocabulary words in common, etc.
The India-China connection goes back over a thousand years linked to the spread of Buddhism and the travel of scholars.
So Indo-Chinese diaspora food is a legitimate and delicious offshoot, not fake.
I went to Bansari in Fairfax County, just off Gallows Road. I ordered Chinese Bhel and Hakka Noodles with chicken. The Bhel was an odd dish that was tasty in a chili sweet way. It was kind of a middle America salad, with green and red peppers, green onions, cabbage sliced thin and a small amount of sprouts. It was served with a rather sweet chili dressing that packed a little heat. But the ingredient that really stood out were the chow mein fried noodles. It gave it an odd, crunchy texture that really made the dish. Not a great dish but a fun and refreshing one.
The Hakka Noodles were the star of the show. Just delicious with a hint of ginger and soy sauce in the background but the overall spicing kind of reminded me of some sort of a Mongolian/Uyghur/Northern India rice dish, maybe a touch of Hoisin sauce? Not sure. Obviously, I didn't recognize it and couldn't narrow it down. So I don't know what it was, but the entire meal I was enjoying the food and thinking, "This reminds me of another dish..." All in all, I didn't know what to expect, I don't know exactly what I got and why it seemed so familiar even though I didn't recognize the dish. And I want to go back and try it again. I call that a win.Looks good.
I ended up making teriyaki salmon at home, but I will report back whenever I get my Hakka Take-out.
Adding @THECHARLES’ post about
Hakka cuisine here
https://www.hungryonion.org/t/newly-opened-restaurants-2022-toronto/27848/9?u=phoenikia
Finally got around to ordering some Hakka food.
It was Canadian Thanksgiving on Monday, so I’ve had 3 days of turkey, which meant I avoided chicken tonight.
We tried the vegetable momos, Manchurian beef (dry version, $2 extra), Hakka noodles with shrimp and veggie spring rolls. It was good! I don’t have too much experience with Hakka food. I didn’t love the chili chicken at another restaurant. I like crispy ginger beef.
There are three places near me (Houston), along the sides of a triangular shaped block, which offer Indian style Chinese food. I’ve never seen the word Hakka used to describe them, although I think they all have some dishes labeled Hakka. One, Bombay Express, offers the menu all day long. The other two, Nukkad Dabha and Hyderabadi Chai and Grill, only offer it starting at 5 pm. All three are open until at least 2 am, very unusual in this part of town. My favorite dish has been the Schezwan Fried rice. My avatar is the version from Hyderabadi Grill. Visually arresting and addictive but this version requires careful and measured intake 
The version from Bombay has almost no heat.
Re: the original topic, eating ethnically is a primary reason for going out, whether locally or on the road. I love trying new cuisines, new dishes, I always scan a menu for something new to me rather than ‘favorites’ and when I travel, I’m looking for regional or ‘foreign/ethnic’ cuisines/dishes I can’t get at home.
An article in the local paper or on one of the foodie media a few years back (pre-pandemic) asserted there were 83 different cuisines available in Houston. I reckoned I had experienced something like 65 of them. I’m sure that overall count has changed because of the pandemic.
My nearby Mumbai street food restaurant has a number of Indo-Chinese dishes amongst its starters. No main courses though.
Interesting article here about the now very small Chinese community in the city
My first priority traveling anywhere is to eat local, meaning a food item unique (as possible) to the locale.
For example, I made a point to try Taber corn and locally raised beef in Alberta.
The Vietnamese food in Alberta made with Albertan beef is excellent.
Taber corn isn’t quite as good as southwestern Ontario corn, but it is good for Alberta.
I have had enough plain fresh local Ontario and Taber corn, and Alberta beef, that I eat them in more interesting ways that reflect the multicultural diversity in Canada. I have been to Caesar’s steakhouse in Calgary, as well as Hy’s (Hy’s was founded in Winnipeg but has locations in Calgary and Toronto). The upscale steakhouses in Alberta are comparable to the steakhouses in LA, Toronto , Montreal or NYC. Not where I spend my money on trips to Alberta unless I’m dining with friends and family who want an old school steakhouse experience.
Ginger Beef, is Calgary’s specialty in terms of a regional dish made with local beef that was invented in Calgary’s Chinatown at the Silver Inn in 1975.
Calgary has a very nice little Chinatown.
Your comment about eating Taber corn in Alberta is a little like saying you eat tomatoes when you visit New Jersey.
New Jersey tomatoes are fantastic, but we all know there is more to regional cuisine in New Jersey than their fantastic tomatoes. It’s not eating ethnically in NJ to eat tomatoes, and it isn’t eating ethnically in Alberta to eat local beef and Taber corn.
I did not say I am eating ethnically while enjoying Taber corn in Alberta. I am saying what my priorities are when traveling. If it’s something I can’t get where I live, then I enjoy focusing on that, with no concern toward eating ethnically or not.
Since I was not in SW Ontario at the time, the relative deliciousness of the corn did not concern me.
