One of the most shocking revelations of my life was when I learned that Manchurian is not Chinese. It was actually created in 1975 by Nelson Wang, who was a cook at the Cricket Club of India in Mumbai. Since then, Manchurian has been one of the crown jewels of Indo-Chinese cuisine. These are deep-fried balls made of chopped meat, and veggies like spring onion, cauliflower, and cornflour. These balls are cooked in soy sauce replete with veggies. Over the years, Manchurian has been reimagined in many ways and one of the latest ‘Manchurians’ to tickle our fancy is this ‘Toofani Manchurian’. The preparation of the Manchurian is rather standard, but the way, this Ludhiana vendor is making Manchurian is quite captivating, which is why perhaps this reel shot by @chatore_brothers has clocked more than 1.5 million views in less than three weeks.
To make these Manchurian he finely chops spring onions, onions, cabbage and carrots. He mixes a part of the chopped veggies with cornflour and makes a dough with which he makes multiple ‘Manchurian balls’ and deep-fries it in a heavy bottom Kadhai. With a slotted spoon he tosses them several times, and brings them up to quite a height making quite a visual treat. Once the balls are transferred he proceeds to make the gravy, for which he adds the rest of the chopped veggies, flour, salt and sautees it. Then he adds water, soya sauce, and vinegar from two bottles held at a height, making a nice ribbon-like effect, followed by a cornflour slurry. With much theatrics, he mixes up everything and tosses in the Manchurian balls. Then he lays out many plastic containers and pours a sizzling hot portion of the sauce in all of them, followed by Manchurian balls.
The comments section is filled with reactions of all kinds, “bhai tere soya sauce me galti se Manchurian gir gaye (brother it seems like a bit of Manchurian dropped in your soya sauce by mistake)”, wrote a user taking a dig at the amount of soya sauce used in the ‘Toofani Manchurian”. “Zabardast”, “Ultimate”, “Kya Baat Hai”, were some of the comments in praise of the dish.