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Korma
One of the mildest curries on most menus and a safe harbor for anyone wary of chili. Meat or vegetables are slow-cooked in a sauce enriched with yogurt, cream or coconut milk; British curry houses usually lean on coconut where traditional cooks would use a paste of almonds or cashews for that silky texture, with cardamom for fragrance.
Expect it rich, gentle and a little sweet. It is the obvious pick for children and a useful cooling partner for someone else's madras. Mild should never mean bland, though: if all you can taste is sugar, blame the kitchen, not the dish.
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Pasanda
Korma's slightly grander cousin. The name comes from the Urdu word for favorite, and the sauce is yogurt and cream thickened with ground almonds, then lightly spiced.
Mild, creamy and aromatic, it is the one to choose when you want something gentle but a touch more fragrant and nutty than the usual korma. Not every menu carries it, so when one does, it is worth a look.
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Chicken tikka masala
The dish many Britons order without opening the menu: pieces of chicken marinated in spices and yogurt, roasted, then served in a creamy tomato sauce. Expect mild, with a gentle warmth rather than any real heat.
Its birth is a happy argument. The best-known legend credits chef Ali Ahmed Aslam at the Shish Mahal in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1971, improvising a sauce for a customer who found his chicken tikka too dry; others see it as an adaptation of Delhi's butter chicken. In 2001 the British politician Robin Cook called it a true British national dish. Order it when you want comfort, not a challenge.
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Butter chicken
Also called murgh makhani, this is the North Indian dish that tikka masala is forever compared with: tandoor-cooked chicken in a gravy of tomatoes, butter and cream, warmed with garam masala, cumin and coriander. It is usually credited to Kundan Lal Gujral of Moti Mahal in Delhi, who softened leftover tandoori chicken in exactly that kind of sauce.
Next to a tikka masala it tends to be smoother, more buttery and a little sweeter, with mild spice. If the menu offers both, butter chicken is the richer of the two; bring a naan.
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Biryani
A full meal on one plate rather than a curry with rice on the side. Traditionally, meat and rice are slow-cooked together with aromatic spices, and the dish's roots are usually traced to Persia. In many British takeout places it is closer to a stir-fry of pilau rice with chicken or lamb.
It is typically mild, built on fragrance rather than heat, so it suits a diner who wants flavor without fire. It is worth asking how a restaurant makes it: a kitchen that layers and slow-cooks its biryani is one to remember.
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Rogan josh
Lamb, usually, braised slowly in a gravy flavored with garlic, ginger and aromatic spices. It is a signature of Kashmiri cooking with Persian roots. Where the name comes from is debated: one common reading links rogan to the Persian word for oil or clarified butter, another to a Kashmiri word for red.
That deep red color looks like a warning, but rogan josh is richly flavored and generally not too hot. It is the classic next step for someone ready to move on from korma without reaching for the water jug.
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Bhuna
Strictly a cooking method rather than one recipe: the meat is simmered in a spicy tomato sauce until it thickens and reduces, so you get less gravy and more concentrated flavor clinging to every piece.
Most menus pitch it at medium. Choose it if you like a curry that coats rather than swims, and tear off some naan to mop up what little sauce there is.
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Dopiaza
Order this one if you love onions, because the name means two onions. Some are cooked into the sauce for sweetness and more go in later for texture, so every forkful has a bit of soft and a bit of bite.
It usually arrives at medium heat, and some kitchens add a squeeze of lemon for a sour edge. A good middle-of-the-menu choice for someone who finds korma too rich but madras too much.
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Dhansak
A Parsi classic in origin, where lentils, vegetables and lamb cook together into something far more complex than most restaurants attempt. The curry-house version keeps the meat and lentils and describes itself as hot, sweet and sour, often with pineapple for a fruity twist.
The lentils give it body and a gentle earthiness, so it feels hearty without being heavy. Pick it when you want warmth and tang in the same mouthful.
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Pathia
Think of it as the curry house's answer to sweet and sour: a thick sauce that is sweet, sour and hot all at once, with tomato, chili, sugar and a sharp edge from tamarind and lime juice.
It suits anyone who enjoys a dhansak's tang but would rather skip the lentils, and it is lighter than the creamy mild dishes. Its name comes from a Parsi fish stew called pathia, though the British curry-house version has gone its own way.
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Balti (food)
The most famous dish of Birmingham, England, named after the bowl it comes in. Purists insist on a thin pressed-steel pan with a flat bottom and two handles, in which the curry is cooked fast and served straight to the table, sizzling.
Cooked quickly like a stir-fry rather than low and slow, it is fairly dry, fresh-tasting and made for scooping with bread. The heat depends entirely on the chef, so check the menu or ask.
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Jalfrezi
The name comes from Bengali words for hot and fried, and that is the promise: meat, fish, paneer or vegetables stir-fried with onions, peppers, tomatoes and plenty of green chili, served in a thick, spicy sauce.
It is fresher and crunchier than most curries, and properly hot, though how hot depends on the cook. A 2011 poll even named it Britain's favorite curry, nudging tikka masala aside. The natural choice once medium starts to feel tame.
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Madras curry
Despite the name, you will not find this one in Madras or anywhere else in India. It is a British curry-house creation: a thick, hot sauce built on tomato, garlic and ginger, with dried red chilies doing the heavy lifting.
On the British heat scale it sits near the top, usually a step below vindaloo, which makes it the classic test for anyone moving up from medium. Order it with rice and a cooling side, and you will soon know whether you are a madras person.
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Vindaloo
The famous fire-starter has gentler roots. It comes from Goa, based on the Portuguese dish carne de vinha d'alhos, pork marinated in vinegar and garlic, and in India it is still almost always made with pork. Dried red chilies ground with vinegar give it that sharp, tangy kick.
The British version turns the heat right up and sits close to the top of the curry-house scale, so order with caution. Keep a raita or lassi within reach.
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Phall
The top rung of the ladder, and on most menus more of a dare than a dinner. Phall was invented in Bangladeshi-owned curry houses in Birmingham, England, and it is typically a thick tomato-based curry made with up to 10 or 12 very hot chilies, sometimes Scotch bonnets or something fiercer.
Not every restaurant offers it. Unless you genuinely enjoy that level of heat, admire it from a safe distance and order the madras.
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Tandoori chicken
Not a curry at all: chicken marinated in yogurt and spices, then cooked in a tandoor, a large clay oven fired with charcoal or wood. The dish as restaurants serve it is usually credited to Kundan Lal Gujral, who first made it in Peshawar and later took it to Moti Mahal in Delhi after Partition.
It arrives smoky and charred rather than saucy, which makes it a good appetizer to share or a lighter main with a dal and a naan. Chicken tikka is its boneless cousin from the same oven, and the meat that goes into a tikka masala.
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Papadam
Poppadoms
The thin, crisp discs that often arrive while everyone is still reading the menu, usually with a tray of chutneys and pickles to dip them in. They are an easy way to taste the kitchen's mango chutney, lime pickle and raita before committing to a main.
Pace yourself, though: a tall stack of poppadoms is an easy way to fill up before the curry even lands. One or two each is plenty.
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Bhaji
Onion bhaji
The curry house's signature appetizer: sliced onion bound in a batter of gram flour, which is ground chickpeas, and deep-fried until crisp. Gram flour itself is naturally gluten-free, but cross-contamination is possible, so ask if that matters.
Crunchy, savory and mild, it is the safe opener for a nervous table and the one plate everybody reaches for. Eat it hot, with the chutney tray.
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Samosa
A deep-fried pastry triangle with a savory filling, usually spiced potato and peas for the vegetable version or spiced ground meat for the meat one. Crisp outside, soft and warm inside, it is the other appetizer most tables can agree on.
Heat is normally gentle, though some kitchens slip in green chili, so the first bite is a good test of how the evening is going to go.
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Pilaf
Pilau rice
Rice, usually basmati, cooked in stock with spices, and the default rice on most curry-house menus. It is more fragrant than plain boiled rice and carries a sauce well without competing with it.
When sharing, one portion between two is usually plenty if there is bread on the table too. Skip it if you have ordered a biryani, which already has the rice built in.
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Naan
The flatbread traditionally slapped against the hot inner wall of the tandoor, where it puffs and blisters, and the best tool on the table for scooping up sauce.
Plain and garlic are the safe bets. Peshwari naan is the sweet one, stuffed with coconut, almonds and often golden raisins, and it pairs surprisingly well with something hot. Keema naan, filled with spiced ground meat, is almost a meal in itself, so order it with a lighter main.
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Saag
Saag aloo
Saag on a menu means a dish built on spinach, and saag aloo pairs it with potato. It is the side most likely to win over a skeptic: earthy, soft and comforting, and a good balance for a hot main.
The same greens turn up elsewhere too, most often as saag paneer, where fresh cheese takes the place of the potato. A diner who likes this side has an easy vegetarian route to a whole meal.
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Palak paneer
The spinach dish you will meet on many American Indian menus: cubes of paneer, a fresh Indian cheese, in a thick sauce of puréed spinach. Palak is the Hindi word for spinach, and in British curry houses the same idea often goes by saag paneer.
It is the obvious vegetarian main for anyone who liked saag aloo as a side, and the cheese makes it filling enough to anchor a meal. Order a naan to scoop it up.
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Dal
Tarka dal
Dal is a dish of cooked pulses, a staple of South Asian home cooking that can be thick enough to scoop with bread or loose enough to spoon over rice. Tarka dal is finished with spices sizzled in hot oil or ghee and poured over the top.
It is cheap, comforting and the vegetarian's best friend at the table, and a spoonful calms down a fierce curry. Order one for the table whatever else you choose.
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