1943-1945
Indian cuisine is mostly absent from these menus. Dining out only became a widespread custom in India after the 1947 Partition of Punjab, when displaced refugees launched the nation’s first major restaurant culture out of economic necessity.3 However, Chinese restaurants were already established in India prior to the war, primarily serving immigrant communities in Bombay (now Mumbai) and Calcutta (now Kolkata). Both by culture, and by offering a cuisine familiar to Allied soldiers, Chinese restaurateurs were ideally positioned to meet the new dining demand. In some of their wartime establishments, Chinese dishes dominated, while in others it was downplayed in favor of American and British fare.
White House Café – Karachi (now in Pakistan)
The White House Café in the Marina Hotel was a popular social hub for Allied service members. The cover features the “V” for Victory sign, a perennial symbol throughout the war. The café was owned by a colorful restaurateur named Ho Toon Jin, the only proprietor identified in this series.4 The menu below includes traditional Chinese dishes, British fish and chips, and American foods like apple pie and hot dogs. One Indian Rupee was then equal to roughly 0.30 US Dollars.
Chungking – Karachi
“Chungking” was once the romanized spelling of Chongqing, a sprawling city situated at the confluence of the Yangtze and Jialing rivers in southwestern China. Yet this menu does not feature fiery Chongqing cuisine, known for its heavy use of red chili peppers and Sichuan peppercorns. Instead, it offers milder Nanjing-style dishes. In India at the time, the restaurant name “Chungking” did not refer to a regional cuisine, but rather to the unyielding endurance of China’s wartime capital—a theme reinforced by the Nationalist Chinese flag on the cover.
Hua Nan - Bombay
The term “Hua Nan” (not to be confused with Hunan) translates to “South China,” reflecting the Cantonese cuisine served at this restaurant. Displaying the Nationalist Chinese flag, this extensive menu from 1943 also includes a variety of other cuisines, including Indian and Southeast Asian curries and traditional biryanis. Hua Nan was housed in the curvilinear Art Deco building named Botawala Chambers near Horniman Circle. It claimed to be “Bombay’s leading Chinese restaurant,” which is plausible given its prime address in the Fort district.
Abalone, a prized Chinese delicacy, is referred to by its Japanese name, “awabi.” This usage may have originated from luxury canned seafood with Japanese labels.
Chinese restaurateurs realized that authentic Cantonese cuisine did not always suit Western palates, prompting them to adopt hybrids like American chop suey, a dish ubiquitous on these menus, even at upscale places like Hua Nan.
Despite its name, the Coffee Club was an expansive canteen catering to soldiers, sailors, and military personnel passing through the port city. Hand-dated July 1944, this small fold-out menu features 127 items, including a selection of Chinese dishes. By contrast, a similar menu from roughly a year earlier offered just 88 items and no Chinese options at all. This sudden addition highlights the popularity of Chinese cuisine among Allied troops during the war.
New World – Bombay
In Chinese restaurant names, the word “New” often signified modernity, growth, and cultural adaptation. On the cover illustration, “V for Victory” is subtly incorporated into the flag of a dhow—a traditional trading vessel with slanting triangular sails that plies the coastal waters of the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean. Unsurprisingly, the New World restaurant was located near the port.
Chinese restaurants in India originated in the early 1920s within Calcutta’s Chinese community, where Cantonese and Hakka cooks prepared traditional recipes from Southern China. However, the New Asia restaurant was located in the city’s commercial center, and its abbreviated menu was tailored specifically for the influx of foreign visitors.
New American Kitchen – Calcutta
Over time, street life in India became commonplace to the average soldier, as suggested by the scant notice given to the snake charmer in the above header photo of this restaurant. The New American Kitchen was reportedly owned by a Portuguese restaurateur. Even the best establishments in Calcutta—among which this restaurant was said to have been one—were described by one visitor as “none too clean.”
Chungking – Asansol, West Bengal
Asansol is located 125 miles northwest of Calcutta, which is where the menu below was printed on Sun Yat-Sen Street, named after the founder of the Republic of China. Interestingly, the ornamental typeface used for the inside headings is reminiscent of decorative designs popular during the Victorian era. This restaurant catered to American and British airmen stationed at Asansol Airfield, which was active during the final stages of the Burma Campaign in 1945.
This restaurant was located near the port on the Karnaphuli River, a vital Allied supply base during the Burma Campaign. While an earlier menu prohibited poultry dishes two days a week, a rationing notice on this menu designates Mondays and Thursdays as “meatless days,” reflecting stricter regulations imposed in British territories as the war progressed. This menu offers a Mughlai curry, a Muslim-influenced dish. In addition, the restaurant prohibited alcohol, reflecting local religious customs.
Golden Dragon – Dibrugarh, Assam
In the early 19th century, Chinese laborers migrated to Assam to help establish commercial tea plantations. Over time, many settled and integrated into local towns like Dibrugarh. Situated at the foothills of the Eastern Himalayas in northeastern India, Assam was ideally positioned to host strategic airfields used to resupply the Chinese Nationalist Army. Golden Dragon was located near Dinjan Airfield, which served as an air transport hub and evacuation hospital base within the China-Burma-India (CBI) theater of operations.
Washington – Nadua, Assam
The village of Nadua is located about 12 miles from Dibrugarh. Given its remote location and the limited menu below, this restaurant functioned solely for American service personnel stationed at Chabua Airfield, a primary base for Tenth Air Force transport flights over the Himalayas.
Still tucked inside this menu was a receipt from 1945 for 21 steak sandwiches, revealing that the restaurant also catered to takeout. Business was evidently good. Looking back, the war provided Chinese restaurateurs with the opportunity to expand beyond their traditional neighborhoods, paving the way for Chinese restaurants that flourish across the country today.6
The GIs found living conditions in India tough, particularly in the Assam Valley, where accommodations were primitive. During the monsoon season, the bases turned into seas of mud, compounded by sweltering heat and high humidity. In addition, eating off-base carried sanitary risks, with dysentery being among the most common afflictions. While the Americans were there to complete a mission, they were also tourists at times, venturing out to experience the unfamiliar, exotic tapestry of Indian life. Menus like these served as tangible keepsakes of those moments.
Notes
1. In total, approximately 200,000 to 250,000 American service personnel served in or passed through India during the course of the war. In addition, 50,000 British regular troops were also stationed in India, serving alongside the large British Indian Army.
2. Most menus saved by World War II soldiers were issued by the military for holidays and special occasions. Restaurant menus saved by military personnel stationed overseas are much less common. Before the war, American servicemen in China occasionally saved menus from Western-style establishments like Fritz’s in Chefoo and Jimmy’s Kitchen, which operated branches in Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Tsingtao. Curiously, they almost never kept a Chinese menu, with the notable exception of Sun Ya, a famous Cantonese restaurant on Shanghai's Nanjing Road.
2. Most menus saved by World War II soldiers were issued by the military for holidays and special occasions. Restaurant menus saved by military personnel stationed overseas are much less common. Before the war, American servicemen in China occasionally saved menus from Western-style establishments like Fritz’s in Chefoo and Jimmy’s Kitchen, which operated branches in Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Tsingtao. Curiously, they almost never kept a Chinese menu, with the notable exception of Sun Ya, a famous Cantonese restaurant on Shanghai's Nanjing Road.
3. Until 1947, dining out in North India was mostly restricted to British-style dining rooms or caste-specific eating houses. The transformation of India's culinary landscape following the Partition of Punjab is one of the most pivotal shifts in modern food history. To this day, most Indian restaurants outside India serve Punjabi cuisine, a legacy shaped by early diaspora migration patterns and the widespread popularity of tandoori cooking and rich, tomato-cream gravies.
4. According to a UN report in 1946, Ho Toon Jin was arrested while en route to Singapore on a steamship and charged with smuggling opium in the false bottom of a wooden box.
5. Chicken à la Maryland was on the menu of the Titanic on the day it struck an iceberg in 1912. The onboard version was most likely prepared using Auguste Escoffier’s recipe, which garnished the dish with bananas. In the 1920s, Chicken Maryland was a specialty of the Chicago-Texas Inn, an American restaurant in Paris. The dish in the UK now comprises a deep-fried chicken breast in a white cream gravy, garnished with a banana or pineapple fritter and chips.
6. To suit local palates, Chinese restaurateurs gradually adapted traditional recipes with local spices, aromatics, and green chilies. What started as incremental changes over several decades eventually exploded into the distinct culinary style known as Indo-Chinese cuisine. There has also been a growing trend toward more authentic Chinese regional cuisines.
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