According to Vir Sanghvi,  given that China is bigger than India and contains even more people, the range of cuisines is vast and diverse. The Muslim minority of the north China likes its cumin, the people of Chengdu like their Sichuan peppercorns, and the people of Hunan love chillies and so on.

The Chinese food being served now is Sino-Ludhianvi. Till the early 1980s, it did not exist. It was invented after the Taj famously opened the House of Ming ( Delhi ) and told North Indians that Chinese food could be teekha. Once that message sunk in, then every thelewallah worked out that if you mixed ketchup and chilli sauce, you could create your own kind of Chinese menu.

In the West, ( till the 1970s at least ), the menu of every Chinese restaurant in the English speaking world had originated in America ( not China ). Many dishes were invented in America ( such as Chop Suey and later Mooshoo Pork ) but were based on Cantonese cooking, among the mildest of China’s many cuisines.

In the seventies the Taj introduced  Sichuan food to India. Nelson Wang who runs China Garden invented Chicken Manchurian. Others did their own kind of Sichuan food by putting Indian masalas.