Gobi Manchurian, the vegetarian alternative to chicken manchurian, has triggered culinary wars in Goa. The fusion dish has been at the centre of a cultural clash between local food preferences and its widespread popularity.
The Mapusa Municipal Council in Goa banned the dish from stalls and feasts due to concerns over synthetic colours and hygiene. The development came after Mapusa councillor Tarak Arolkar said in late January that the dish be banned, to which the council agreed quickly and pushed the popular dish to the culinary dustbin.
While gobi manchurian is a favourite across the length and breadth of India, Goans simply can't stand it. The reasons behind their dislike for the dish range from poor hygiene to synthetic colours, questionable sauces and even, the use of a powder used for washing clothes.
Mapusa Municipal Council (MMC) chairperson Priya Mishra, however, said that the ban on the dish has been placed due to unhygienic conditions and the use of synthetic colours. "The councillors opined that such vendors operate in unhygienic conditions and use synthetic colours for making gobi manchurian and that is what has prompted us to ban the sale of this dish," Mishra was quoted as saying by Times of India.
She further said that vendors were told to avoid selling gobi manchurian. While MMC chairperson said the dish was down the culinary purgatory due to unhygienic practices and the use of synthetic colours, a food safety officer at the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) said the vendors used substandard sauces that are deemed harmful for consumption.
He explained that vendors keep quality sauce on display but use the substandard one for the actual preparation of the dish, while adding they also use some kind of powder alongwith the flour and cornstarch in the batter so that the cauliflower florets are crunchy for longer periods of time.
The officer claimed that this powder is a kind of reetha, which is used for washing clothes. "Have you wondered why you pay Rs 70-100 for one plate in restaurants and Rs 30-40 in zatras? It's because of this," the officer said.
This, however, is not the first time that Goa has declared war on Gobi Manchurian. In 2022, the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) during the Vasco Saptah fair at the Shree Damodar temple, issued instructions to Mormugao Municipal Council to restrict the sale of the popular food item on stalls.
Gobi manchurian's origins can be traced back to where its non-vegetarian counterpart came from. In 1975, Nelson Wang, a cook at the Cricket Club of India in Mumbai, is said to have came up with chicken manchurian when a customer asked him to create a dish different from what was there on the menu.
He deep-fried chicken nuggets in a cornflour batter and served it either dry or in a gravy made with soy sauce, vinegar, sugar and tomato sauce. Gobi manchurian is the vegetarian alternative to this dish.
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