Ten Indian dishes worth knowing, and which of them you can order at Smokey Barrels on Coventry Road.
Indian food covers a huge amount of ground. Every region has its own dishes, and plenty of them have stories that go back centuries. If you like a bit of spice, or you just want to know what to order next time, these ten are a good place to start.
Four of them are on our menu: butter chicken, lamb rogan josh, paneer and anything from the tandoor. The rest are classics worth knowing even if you will have to find them elsewhere. Either way, you can eat while the game is on our screens at the sports bar.
The top 10 Indian dishes to try
1. Butter chicken
Rich, creamy and only mildly spicy, butter chicken (Murgh Makhani) comes from Delhi. Tender chicken sits in a spiced tomato and butter sauce. It is on our menu, and it is the one to order if someone at the table is nervous about heat.
2. Biryani
A fragrant rice dish cooked with lamb, chicken or vegetables and scented with saffron and floral spices. Biryani is the dish that makes rice the main event, and it often turns up at weddings and celebrations.
3. Samosas
Pastry parcels stuffed with spiced meat, vegetables or potato. The name comes from sambosag, and samosas are thought to be one of the earliest street snacks, dating back to the Iranian Plateau (the BBC has the history).
4. Chole bhature
A hearty chickpea curry from the north, served with a fluffy deep-fried bread. People in India eat it for breakfast, and with a spoon of yoghurt it works at any time of day. On a cold night it is hard to beat.
5. Tandoori chicken
Probably the most famous dish to come out of the Punjab. The chicken is marinated in yoghurt and spices, then cooked on skewers in a tandoor, the clay oven it is named after. Our tandoor is where the chicken tikka, lamb chops and the rest of our mixed grills are cooked.
6. Palak paneer
Spinach curry with chunks of paneer, the fresh cheese used across northern Indian cooking. Plenty of India's best-known dishes are vegetarian, and this one, along with its close relative saag paneer, is popular in Pakistan too. On our menu, paneer comes as paneer tikka and paneer tikka masala.
7. Rogan josh
An aromatic lamb curry from Kashmir with a deep red colour. It is a staple there and one of the main dishes of the Wazwan, the multi-course Kashmiri feast. Lamb rogan josh is on our menu, and if it were our list it would be higher than seventh.
8. Dosa
Thin, crispy crepes, often filled with spiced potato. Dosa are thought to come from southern India, though nobody knows exactly where, and they were already being written about around the first century.
9. Aloo gobi
Potato and cauliflower cooked with fresh herbs and spices. It is simple food done well, and it is popular across Nepal, Bengal and Pakistan as well as India.
10. Gulab jamun
India is not best known for its desserts, but this one is the exception: soft, sweet dumplings soaked in a rose-flavoured syrup.
Where to eat Indian food on Coventry Road
Smokey Barrels is an Indian restaurant and sports bar in Yardley, with grills from the tandoor, curries like butter chicken and rogan josh, a full bar and big screens for the match.
Book a table on 0121 764 5519 or book online.
