Goa's problems with gobi manchurian - one of the most popular modern Indian dishes

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

gobi manchurian has caused problems in Goa. The Mormugao Municipal Council faced angry questions over stalls selling the item at Vasco’s recently concluded Saptah Fair, despite an earlier resolution to ban them. Last year at the Kapileshwar Jatra in Ponda, six gobi manchurian stalls were shut after complaints from locals.

This shows how popular the dish is, even if many abhor it.

The writer CY Gopinath once suggested, jokingly, in The Times Of India, that its name came from “gobi man churaya”, for how it stole people’s hearts. It would certainly seem that way given how widespread the dish has become, with gobi manchurian stalls found in every corner of India, as in Goa.

It has probably surpassed ‘chicken manchurian’ from whose unique history it derives. Nelson Wang, Mumbai’s Chinese culinary impresario, is credited with inventing chicken manchurian while catering at the Cricket Club of India in the 1970s.

Challenged to come up with something new, he dunked chicken nuggets in spicy cornflour batter, deep fried and served them either dry or in a tangy gravy made with soy sauce, vinegar, sugar and, sometimes, tomato sauce. ‘Manchurian’ seems to have been picked to sound exotic.

Using cauliflower for a vegetarian version must have come soon after. A ToI ad on January 1, 1986, for a New Year buffet lunch at Chopsticks restaurant lists both lotus roots in manchurian sauce and Tsing Hai cauliflower.

‘Tsing Hai’ recipes have a sauce that sounds close to manchurian, so the concept and name were possibly already bubbling close together. Caterers appreciated its ease of preparation and versatility. The cauliflower just needs chopping and blanching, the sauce simply combines ready-made ingredients and you get both a starter (dry