Bundobust debuts its new ‘Indo-Chinese’ menu and it’s a hit

Indo-Chinese food has a long and storied history, dating as far back as the 1700s, when Chinese immigrants arrived in Kolkata, fleeing civil war in China and bringing with them a host of new spices and ingredients from home.

And so, a whole fusion cuisine was born, as well as India’s first Chinatown, with noodles meeting curry and five spice mashed up with garam masala. To celebrate this meeting of minds, Bundobust has prepped some new menu items which will be available all summer.

So as a failsafe favourite in the city, the MEN has little choice but to head down to check them out. First for the familiar - Bundo’s now iconic okra fries, the dish that has single-handedly changed views on the divisive vegetable since the restaurant opened its doors in Leeds in 2014.

Messing with a classic is clearly dangerous. Foolhardy, at best. But trusting in the fact that everyone loves salt & pepper chips from the local Chinese chippy, perhaps this isn’t such a maverick move after all.

While the astringent vibe of the mango powder is absent, the salt & pepper okra fries, layered with soy-soaked peppers, onions, chilli and a sweet-salty seasoning liberally covering the crispy shards of okra, this is a total winner. In fact, there’s an argument for installing them permanently, offering people the choice of the original, or the Indo version.

Next up, the Hakka noodles. These soft egg noodles are stir fried with Indo-Chinese spices, peppers, mushroom and white cabbage, before being doused in soy. They’re delicious, fearsome-looking red chillies just adding a pleasing warmth rather than being a full take-your-face-off situation.

A slight duff note - a genuine rarity at Bundobust - is the Tofoo 65, a shame considering it looked the