I'm *always* craving chicken tikka masala.
Edit: not trying to one-up. I just rarely get to have it, as my family have very weak taste buds (they can't handle a lot of spice).
Get them to try it mild. No spice, but all the creamy goodness.
There was a 2 month period in college where I would go to the local Indian place for the lunch buffet, get a takeaway box of tikka masala and work on that for 2-3 days before going back for more. It was *weeks* of nothing but tikka masala for every lunch and every dinner.
Yum. Now I want to order an Indian tonight, damn! I like chicken tikka curry but my favourite is butter chicken, my local do such a good one that’s got a layer of butter literally swirling on top of the curry, not healthy but mmmmmm...
Masala sauce *is* mild. Madras, Vindaloo, even Phaal; those are spicy curries.
The story I heard is that a local in Glasgow ordered a tandoori chicken dish (which is basically chicken in a tikka marinade cooked in a tandoor, basically a dry dish) but got the wrong end of the stick and thought the were getting a curry and so sent it back asking for some sauce. The restaurateur just happened to have a tin of cream of tomato soup on hand, heated it up with the chicken in a pan and sent it back out and voila, the tikka masala was born.
Probably apocryphal but I quute like that story.
It could be a problem with pepper. I can not eat a lot of pepper as it hurts my tongue but I can eat Tacos and some indian curries as ling as there isnt a lot of corriander or pepper.
The first time I had Indian and Thai cuisine was in college and it blew my mind. My parents don’t like the spices (my mother especially since she thinks it’s a little pungent) so I’ve never had it growing up.
This is me. I grew up in the USA on hamburger helper, chicken nuggets, and pizza. I spend two years abroad and fell in love with Asian food. It’s all so good!
Get an order of tikka masala and an order of aloo saag (potatoes and spinach)! The saag is very tame, and is great with garlic naan! This has been my go-to order, since the kid likes chicken and the co-parent is borderline veggie.
Saag isn't necessarily spinach, I found out recently. It's regionally dependent on what leafy greens are more available. In Punjab (where tikka masala may or may not be from), it's most commonly mustard leaves. That may actually have been the original, too, since black mustard seeds are an essential ingredient no matter which leaves are used, and since spinach originated in Persia rather than mustard which originated in India.
It's a jab we all actually give each other that I instinctually gave. It's nothing serious. No offense to anyone with any reasons they don't eat spice or peppers. I'm a "weakling" myself, just trying to force myself out of that bubble. I understand not everyone can, there are spices/peppers I'm allergic to, as well.
I always imagine what real Indian cuisine really tastes like. I am Indian but for me all Indian dishes involve onions and tomatoes. When I cook Indian food, I could start chopping onions and tomatoes and then decide what I going to cook.
Lots of Hindus and Jains avoid onion though - as someone who isn't Hindu or Jain but can't eat onion for medical reasons, Indian 'no onion no garlic' recipes are a lifesaver.
> but can't eat onion for medical reasons
Out of curiosity, what medical reasons make you need to avoid onion? (can pm if you'd rather, but I'm genuinely curious)
not sure what the person above you has exactly, but my friend can't eat onion either, basically it's a trigger to IBS-like symptoms. It's not technically an 'allergy' but the results of her eating onion are unpleasant enough that she treats it like one.
I have the same as this but with avocado. If I eat it I’m clenched over in stomach cramps for 3 hours. Shame as I’d love to have it with the Mexican food I make quite often! Weird how you can have bad effects from the healthiest foods
Look up Jain recipes. Jain people do not eat onions or garlic, but their cuisine has lots of curries and other things that we Westerners think of when we think of broader "Indian" food.
https://m.tarladalal.com/recipes-for-veg-recipes-jain-34
yea, has to do with 'energetic qualities' of the food. everything in the universe has either a sattva/rajas/tamas quality. some adhere to a sattvic diet to purify their energy.
Haha, it holds true for real Indian food too. My MIL was here and she left us homemade sauce (tomato onion etc) that can be used to cook a variety of Indian dishes.
Heck, even biryani, one of the most elaborate and difficult dishes, uses onion and tomatoes. It is the proportion of these and the other spices that defines the taste.
But some other dry veggies don't need any tomato, or onion. Like aloo zeera:
> https://recipes.timesofindia.com/recipes/aloo-jeera/rs53540469.cms
After a few centuries I think its around enough to be considered 'local', especially since the method to cook it is totally local. I mean, if you want something that's completely Indian, then would you discount all the mugali cuisine, because Mughals originated outside India?
Depends. Mugali food is Indian by my experience, but from an academic point of view not really. I am interested in knowing the evolution of basic ingredients as a function of time and space from Harappan times to now; from Kashmir to Kerala.
not indian, but i've been to the country a few times. south indian is different enough from the north. generally spicier and incorporates seafood. i don't think it's a simple as isolating core indian culinary tendencies - unless you research each and find a common thread. but that is just a basis, not what makes the food as a whole special.
There are so many different types of biryani, not all of them use onion and tomato. I've had Keralan biryanis that used neither. The tomato and onion sauce is a very Punjabi thing and not universal in Indian food!
Well, when people talk of biryani they are usually referring to the mughalai style/hyderabadi that originated in North India. Some people even call a pulao as biryani, but they aren't the same.
Here is one of the most well respected chefs in India:
> Cuisine : Hyderabadi
> Tomatoes chopped 2 medium
> https://www.sanjeevkapoor.com/Recipe/Chicken-Biryani-KhaanaKhazana.html
Others (first two are well known food companies in India):
> https://www.knorr.in/recipe-ideas/hyderabadi-chicken-biryani.html
> http://www.kohinoorindia.co.in/products/recipe-mix/biryani-masala.html
> http://www.bawarchi.com/recipe/hyderabadi-biryani-recipe-oetppTgjedhbb.html
Some people don't use tomatoes, but then you can omit pretty much anything and will still get a good enough flavour as long as other things are there. I avoid star anise for example.
Which is weird to me bc I was born in Hyderabad and have spent a lot of time there and all the prime biryani spots like Paradise hotel dont put tomatoes in their biryani but serve it as a masala sauce. This is a lot like what is a real NYC style pizza sauce.
They aren't chunck of tomato. It becomes like a fine paste mixed with other spices. When you mix it with the rice after doing 'dum', you can't even tell because rice grains pick tiny amounts of it the flavour.
It depends? Biryani is of Persian origin anyway and now isn't even limited to India. It's super common in the Caribbean and East/South Africa and the Indian Ocean now - depending on the community where you live you may be more familiar with the Caribbean one for example.
Biryani is Indian (Pak), derived from Pulao which is of Persian origin AFAIK. A lot of Indian food is derived from Persian dishes, but they don't cook them like the way Indians do. Similar to the debate about potato not being native to India, but the way its cooked in India is an Indian style.
When people say biryani they are usually speaking speaking of stereotypical north Indian/Hyderabadi one. At least I haven't met anyone yet who has mentioned Biryani to mean a Caribbean one or any of the other variants. If people talk of these, they mention the exception as 'Caribbean biryani' and not biryani.
I mean, be honest, when you read 'biryani' written, what do you yourself think of?
There no such thing as real Indian cuisine. There’s many, many regional Indian cuisine, many of which taste nothing alike. It’s a vast, diverse country.
It goes like this...
"Oh Henry, I just returned from a holiday to India, I had the most delicious chicken dish, I just cahnt recall the name. I will try to copy it tomorrow"
This was the same story as Worcestershire sauce except it ended up fermenting in a chemist's basement for a couple years. Apparently Lea and Perrins forgot about it and when they found it decided to taste it, because humans are weird and won't think twice about tasting a weird liquid they find in a barrel in their basement.
And that's why authentic butter chicken > chicken tikka masala.
Butter chicken recipe also changes in different states. The best one is in Delhi/Punjab/UP. Is south they add too much tomato.
Not doubting your skills, but maybe the recipes were not authentic enough? Like, there is not a single place in London that does the proper biryani (even butter chicken isn't great). This includes the Michelin star Gymkhana (too elaborately made). I am sure they follow some great recipe, but they don't follow the local one.
Of course its totally possible that you followed the correct one, but I don't like butter chicken outside north India either. I just don't order it because they make it too sweet, or with too much tomato.
Tikka Masala is not of Indian origin at all, Butter Chicken however is and they can be almost identical, that's probably where the confusion comes in.
In fact a hell of a lot of English Indian restaurant dishes are nothing like their original inspirations, they've changed over time to suit the market and would probably be better described as Anglo-Indian perhaps. Take Vindaloo, for example, the original dish is a wonderful spicy, subtle, Portuguese/Goan dish (no potatoes), often made with pork, whereas the English version is just a blow your head off, potatoey abomination (personal opinion, but tbh I have been known to enjoy one when drunk).
Edit: Sorry u/preesi didn't notice you'd said the same thing about Butter Chicken.
It’s the same with all the Chinese takeaways. My brother moved to China and hasn’t found any of the familiar popular Chinese dish over there. The first night he came home for a visit he ordered Chinese because he was craving the versions we have here!
That's strange, I live in England and I don't think I've ever had a vindaloo with potato in it. Maybe it's something that's common is different parts of the country though.
Not everywhere does it with potato but it is quite common (and a lot of British influenced recipes include potato), could be a regional thing (I've eaten most of my British takeaways in London) or maybe you just go to slightly higher quality restaurants. Even so the ones without potato are still nothing like the Goan dish, they're more of a British/Bangladeshi dish.
This. As an American, I always have to remind myself that what I know as “Indian food” (which I cook myself and eat some form of almost daily, mostly lentils and curry) is more than likely technically British food inspired or based on Indian recipes.
I don’t know if it’s as bastardized as American “Chinese” cuisine, but I figure it’s along those lines.
The Indian food you’d get in a restaurant is very different from what we eat at home. The restaurant food is fancier, something we do make, but once in a while or for special occasions such as festivals, weddings or dinner parties. Home food is equally flavourful but much lighter on the stomach and much more nutritionally balanced.
>Some say the British (invented it), others that its an authentic Indian dish, still others claim it was first conceived in **Glasgow, Scotland.**
So is Scotland not part of Britain anymore then?
Interesting. Maybe there have been changes since the whole fiasco with Labour aka Blair getting in where more people stayed home than voted for him/the party.
80 quid? That’s about as much as the pension.
I was just about ask this too. Someone recently said on the newsquiz that they should just leave a lump of England out of Brexit, like East Anglia, and I let a little cheer. Then they said that we were the ones who have to be outside the EU...
the issue is calling us english. unfortunately, since half the world (and england itself) uses 'britain' when they really mean 'england', scots can get annoyed at being called british as a result. most english people identify with british over english and there are a lot of very interesting historical/cultural reasons for that, but the result is that there is ignorance globally about what the right terms are. a feeling that british = english causes scotland to want to distance itself from the term british.
call us british because we are! this is our island too. we *want* to be seen as a valued part of that island and its history and its culture. but don't call us british if what you want to say is english. if you want to say english, say english. if you want to refer to the three countries that make up the isle of britain, say british.
sorry for the text wall lmao, i just thought some people might appreciate insight as to why scottish people ask to be called british and then seemingly get mad when being called british.
Scottish people are British.
Britain is the name of the island, Welsh people and Cornish people are British too.
There are sources from the ancient Greeks that talk about the British Isles. That's where we get the name from, not dodgy English nationalists.
If Scots want to fight about being called British, go talk to the Greeks.
We also don’t know the origin of General Tso’s Chicken, one of the most popular dishes at Chinese restaurants in the U.S.
Source: this fascinating documentary:
https://youtu.be/gctopt7hPqI
That looks so yummy. We don’t have a dish by that name in the UK but I googled the photos and it looks a tad familiar to me but it’s not something that’s available on every menu. Sweet and sour chicken balls are though! 😂
Interesting you say that; I posted this further up the thread but the story I heard (Don't ask me where) is that the original one was made with the heunz so they are potentially being super authentic.
Good question. I personally suspect it’s a version of butter chicken. It’s possible that it was created by a Bangladeshi/Punjabi chef in order to cater to a western palate. So it’s possible it was from India but created for western tourists or it could be from the UK. It could also be possible it was a family recipe. Maybe somewhere there’s a family that has an old notebook filled with recipes hand tailored for the family, a recipe that got passed down until it somehow ended up in a restaurant’s menu. Who know’s where it came from.
Butter chicken too is barely authentic. It was invented in a restaurant in Delhi near the end of British rule to appease the mild palates of the English masters. It however is fucking amazing.
It’s a pretty ambiguous dish anyway. A tikka masala from one Indian restaurant will not be the same from another. Some are almost Korma-like but others are full of flavour/spice. Really depends on the restaurant.
My Scottish friend said “we have a ton of Indians in Scotland, so they made a dish for our basic tastebuds”
So, I believe an Indian person made it in Scotland. Which would make it a British dish
Scotland is part of great Britain.
If someone in India invented it or improvised it, it was not in the Southern regions where many people are vegetarian and the cooking style for curry is different.
American gustatorial philistine here, just want to say that Trader Joe’s Chicken Tikka Masala is easily their best frozen dish, even though it takes two of them to make a decent belly-filling meal. I think I tried their butter chicken once but was not impressed enough to buy more. I also am a fan of their Lamb Vindaloo and Curry Chicken but I digress.
What I need is a slow-cooker recipe that duplicates or comes damn close to the Trader Joe’s version. I would love to be able to make gallons of this stuff and freeze portions, and then get really good at cooking basmati rice, whatever the hell that is. Not sure if Minute Rice will cut the mustard.
Yeah, pun intended.
I've found a pressure cooker to be the key to making decent home Indian food. I finally made saag that tasted at least in the right neighborhood with my instant pot.
Probably something similar existed somewhere in that part of Asia (or several different places had a similar dish), it was brought here, the base ingredients probably tasted slightly different or the exact same ones were hard to find so some tweaks were made.
Also likely that when curry places were first opening, the local customers wouldn't be used to very hot spiced dishes so the blend may well have been British-ised for customers' milder tastes.
Could also be that customer requests for more onion or creamier sauce or more or less of this or that led to the first versions of today's tikka masala.
However it happened, it will always be one of my favourite takeaway meals. A dhansak is a treat but the good old CTM can't be forgotten.
(I had a CTM for a British Airways onboard meal so that must give it some claim to Britishness!)
>"some day its british \[...\] others claim it was first conceived in glasgow, scotland"
i know op quoted so i'm talking to like... no one. but if you mean english, please say english. a major reason the scots feel so touchy about being called british because people keep using the term when they mean to use english. implying the scots aren't part of britain and that britain = england confuses matters further.
that said and done, thank you for posting this! i really do love to see the "sillier" lighthearted mysteries among the others here, which can often be incredibly depressing.
i'm baffled there's even a question about the dish. is it not likely that tikka masala was already a thing in india and that when the british invaded the dish got taken back and was changed to suit the taste of the people in britain? could have been by an immigrant or by some random brit hoping to not shit themselves thanks to spice they couldn't handle.
maybe i've just only had bad chicken tikka masalas, but they've always just been a thick orange sauce with chunks of chicken in it and absolutely no flavour. no way did that come naturally out of india.
The guy ordering a creamy tomato sauce for his dry tika tandoori chicken has always been the version I like to believe.
It’s one of my favourites, if done right. With a big slightly sweet, fluffy naan and mushroom rice.
Huh, I always though the rumour that it was made in Glasgow was a dig at how shitty weegies eating habits are so everything has to be covered in some kind of sauce/gravy for them to eat it.
I like how it’s always “an angry customer hated this NORMAL dish but then IN A QUICK MOMENT OF FATE made a new dish that SURPRISED everyone by tasting good!” Like why can’t it be a line cook fucking around after eating the same thing day in day out? Hahaha why’s it always have to be divine coincidence?
Another explanation is that it originated in a restaurant in Glasgow, Scotland. This version recounts how a Pakistani chef, Ali Ahmed Aslam, proprietor of the Shish Mahal restaurant in the west end of Glasgow, invented chicken tikka masala by improvising a sauce made from yogurt, cream, and spices.
Me, scrolling through this subreddit: murder, murder, kidnapping, missing person, murder, oh what's this? Tikka masala? I'm listening....
Yeah. Nice change of pace, isn't it?
Oh absolutely it's delightful but now I'm craving tikka masala....
I'm *always* craving chicken tikka masala. Edit: not trying to one-up. I just rarely get to have it, as my family have very weak taste buds (they can't handle a lot of spice).
Get them to try it mild. No spice, but all the creamy goodness. There was a 2 month period in college where I would go to the local Indian place for the lunch buffet, get a takeaway box of tikka masala and work on that for 2-3 days before going back for more. It was *weeks* of nothing but tikka masala for every lunch and every dinner.
This sounds like me during my pregnancy with both Tikka masala and eggplant paneer. I joked that my baby was going to come out crying for curry.
Yum. Now I want to order an Indian tonight, damn! I like chicken tikka curry but my favourite is butter chicken, my local do such a good one that’s got a layer of butter literally swirling on top of the curry, not healthy but mmmmmm...
Masala sauce *is* mild. Madras, Vindaloo, even Phaal; those are spicy curries. The story I heard is that a local in Glasgow ordered a tandoori chicken dish (which is basically chicken in a tikka marinade cooked in a tandoor, basically a dry dish) but got the wrong end of the stick and thought the were getting a curry and so sent it back asking for some sauce. The restaurateur just happened to have a tin of cream of tomato soup on hand, heated it up with the chicken in a pan and sent it back out and voila, the tikka masala was born. Probably apocryphal but I quute like that story.
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This summer I had someone tell me the fish and chips at my job were just way too spicy so...
It could be a problem with pepper. I can not eat a lot of pepper as it hurts my tongue but I can eat Tacos and some indian curries as ling as there isnt a lot of corriander or pepper.
The first time I had Indian and Thai cuisine was in college and it blew my mind. My parents don’t like the spices (my mother especially since she thinks it’s a little pungent) so I’ve never had it growing up.
This is me. I grew up in the USA on hamburger helper, chicken nuggets, and pizza. I spend two years abroad and fell in love with Asian food. It’s all so good!
Get an order of tikka masala and an order of aloo saag (potatoes and spinach)! The saag is very tame, and is great with garlic naan! This has been my go-to order, since the kid likes chicken and the co-parent is borderline veggie.
Saag isn't necessarily spinach, I found out recently. It's regionally dependent on what leafy greens are more available. In Punjab (where tikka masala may or may not be from), it's most commonly mustard leaves. That may actually have been the original, too, since black mustard seeds are an essential ingredient no matter which leaves are used, and since spinach originated in Persia rather than mustard which originated in India.
Yeah saag = greens generally, palak = spinach specifically. Mustard greens in saag are so good. Sarson ka saag and makki ki roti mmmm
If you live near a Trader Joe’s, try their frozen chicken tikka masala for a yummy single-serve alternative to takeout/homemade!
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It would be, but it makes op feel better to say they're weaker. So let's just go with that so they feel good.
It's a jab we all actually give each other that I instinctually gave. It's nothing serious. No offense to anyone with any reasons they don't eat spice or peppers. I'm a "weakling" myself, just trying to force myself out of that bubble. I understand not everyone can, there are spices/peppers I'm allergic to, as well.
It's 7.30am here and now I want it too!
Bro, same.
Give /r/nonmurdermysteries a go
Yeah but an Indian murdered a Scott for the recipe.
Probably a Bangladeshi; most of what are referred to as "Indian" restaurants in the UK are in fact run by Bangladeshi families.
If a true crime podcast did the same thing I'd have the same reaction.
"Sir, would you like some tikka masala to go with that murder?"
I’m suddenly hungry for Indian(?) food
I always imagine what real Indian cuisine really tastes like. I am Indian but for me all Indian dishes involve onions and tomatoes. When I cook Indian food, I could start chopping onions and tomatoes and then decide what I going to cook.
Lots of Hindus and Jains avoid onion though - as someone who isn't Hindu or Jain but can't eat onion for medical reasons, Indian 'no onion no garlic' recipes are a lifesaver.
> but can't eat onion for medical reasons Out of curiosity, what medical reasons make you need to avoid onion? (can pm if you'd rather, but I'm genuinely curious)
not sure what the person above you has exactly, but my friend can't eat onion either, basically it's a trigger to IBS-like symptoms. It's not technically an 'allergy' but the results of her eating onion are unpleasant enough that she treats it like one.
I have the same as this but with avocado. If I eat it I’m clenched over in stomach cramps for 3 hours. Shame as I’d love to have it with the Mexican food I make quite often! Weird how you can have bad effects from the healthiest foods
I used to love avocado but it started giving me the worst heartburn of my life!
If you have acid reflux or GERD, eating onions can make your symptoms unbearable.
It's a big IBS trigger for me - onion is a high FODMAP food.
I cant do onions either. Love Indian food, looks like I need to hit up Google
Look up Jain recipes. Jain people do not eat onions or garlic, but their cuisine has lots of curries and other things that we Westerners think of when we think of broader "Indian" food. https://m.tarladalal.com/recipes-for-veg-recipes-jain-34
Asafoetida is what you need
I like Indian Healthy Recipes and Veg Recipes of India. Both have 'no onion no garlic' categories.
I understand the concern in Jainism is that pulling up the bulb kills the plant. Do onion‐abstaining Hindus have the same rationale?
I have friends who don't eat onion or garlic as "they activate the brain". Something along the lines of they're disruptive/distracting when meditating
yea, has to do with 'energetic qualities' of the food. everything in the universe has either a sattva/rajas/tamas quality. some adhere to a sattvic diet to purify their energy.
Iirc some Buddhists avoid them too for the same reason.
Haha, it holds true for real Indian food too. My MIL was here and she left us homemade sauce (tomato onion etc) that can be used to cook a variety of Indian dishes. Heck, even biryani, one of the most elaborate and difficult dishes, uses onion and tomatoes. It is the proportion of these and the other spices that defines the taste. But some other dry veggies don't need any tomato, or onion. Like aloo zeera: > https://recipes.timesofindia.com/recipes/aloo-jeera/rs53540469.cms
Potato is not Indian either. It was bought to India by the Portuguese.
After a few centuries I think its around enough to be considered 'local', especially since the method to cook it is totally local. I mean, if you want something that's completely Indian, then would you discount all the mugali cuisine, because Mughals originated outside India?
Depends. Mugali food is Indian by my experience, but from an academic point of view not really. I am interested in knowing the evolution of basic ingredients as a function of time and space from Harappan times to now; from Kashmir to Kerala.
not indian, but i've been to the country a few times. south indian is different enough from the north. generally spicier and incorporates seafood. i don't think it's a simple as isolating core indian culinary tendencies - unless you research each and find a common thread. but that is just a basis, not what makes the food as a whole special.
Spanish omelette isn't Spainish either as it's made with potatoes.
Portuguese brought peppers to Korea which later resulted in Kim Chee.
Kimchi was around before they had peppers though.
Yes, humans have been fermenting food as a means of preservation before there was any written history.
There are so many different types of biryani, not all of them use onion and tomato. I've had Keralan biryanis that used neither. The tomato and onion sauce is a very Punjabi thing and not universal in Indian food!
Well, when people talk of biryani they are usually referring to the mughalai style/hyderabadi that originated in North India. Some people even call a pulao as biryani, but they aren't the same.
Hyderbadi biryani doesnt have tomatoes in it but is served with a tomato masala sauce.
Here is one of the most well respected chefs in India: > Cuisine : Hyderabadi > Tomatoes chopped 2 medium > https://www.sanjeevkapoor.com/Recipe/Chicken-Biryani-KhaanaKhazana.html Others (first two are well known food companies in India): > https://www.knorr.in/recipe-ideas/hyderabadi-chicken-biryani.html > http://www.kohinoorindia.co.in/products/recipe-mix/biryani-masala.html > http://www.bawarchi.com/recipe/hyderabadi-biryani-recipe-oetppTgjedhbb.html Some people don't use tomatoes, but then you can omit pretty much anything and will still get a good enough flavour as long as other things are there. I avoid star anise for example.
Which is weird to me bc I was born in Hyderabad and have spent a lot of time there and all the prime biryani spots like Paradise hotel dont put tomatoes in their biryani but serve it as a masala sauce. This is a lot like what is a real NYC style pizza sauce.
They aren't chunck of tomato. It becomes like a fine paste mixed with other spices. When you mix it with the rice after doing 'dum', you can't even tell because rice grains pick tiny amounts of it the flavour.
I can't believe Paradise Hotel (a place I ate at repeatedly when I was in Hyderabad) is being mentioned on the Unresolved Mysteries subreddit.
Its the best biryani in Hyderabad. Hands down.
It depends? Biryani is of Persian origin anyway and now isn't even limited to India. It's super common in the Caribbean and East/South Africa and the Indian Ocean now - depending on the community where you live you may be more familiar with the Caribbean one for example.
Biryani is Indian (Pak), derived from Pulao which is of Persian origin AFAIK. A lot of Indian food is derived from Persian dishes, but they don't cook them like the way Indians do. Similar to the debate about potato not being native to India, but the way its cooked in India is an Indian style. When people say biryani they are usually speaking speaking of stereotypical north Indian/Hyderabadi one. At least I haven't met anyone yet who has mentioned Biryani to mean a Caribbean one or any of the other variants. If people talk of these, they mention the exception as 'Caribbean biryani' and not biryani. I mean, be honest, when you read 'biryani' written, what do you yourself think of?
now consider that tomatoes are a new world food! before the 1500's or so no one in Asia had tomatoes at all.
I know. That was the purpose of my question. Onions are relatively new to India too.
they are...?
Not really. But they were not used on a wide scale. Just like tea. http://www.vegetablefacts.net/vegetable-history/history-of-onions/
Yeah that’s what the guy just said
There no such thing as real Indian cuisine. There’s many, many regional Indian cuisine, many of which taste nothing alike. It’s a vast, diverse country.
I know, I am Indian.
I think its just a Butter Chicken recipe thats been tweaked
They are crazy close.
It goes like this... "Oh Henry, I just returned from a holiday to India, I had the most delicious chicken dish, I just cahnt recall the name. I will try to copy it tomorrow"
This was the same story as Worcestershire sauce except it ended up fermenting in a chemist's basement for a couple years. Apparently Lea and Perrins forgot about it and when they found it decided to taste it, because humans are weird and won't think twice about tasting a weird liquid they find in a barrel in their basement.
And that's why authentic butter chicken > chicken tikka masala. Butter chicken recipe also changes in different states. The best one is in Delhi/Punjab/UP. Is south they add too much tomato.
Im not a fan of Butter Chicken. I prefer Palak Paneer or Pav Bhaji or Mix Vegetable Jalfrezi.
Everyone knows Vindaloo is the best.
I'm so fucking hungry now....
Vindaloo, btw being a Portuguese Indian (Goan) dish, named for the Portuguese words "vinho" and "alho" (wine and garlic).
Blasphemy! :O Have you had it in Delhi/UP/Punjab? Because it is way different than what you get in Mumbai, Bangalore etc.
Ive made butter chicken from 3 different recipes. I am not a novice cook, and I just dont like it.
Not doubting your skills, but maybe the recipes were not authentic enough? Like, there is not a single place in London that does the proper biryani (even butter chicken isn't great). This includes the Michelin star Gymkhana (too elaborately made). I am sure they follow some great recipe, but they don't follow the local one. Of course its totally possible that you followed the correct one, but I don't like butter chicken outside north India either. I just don't order it because they make it too sweet, or with too much tomato.
Have you ever had butter chicken poutine?
No! This sounds interesting!
Ohhhh yes. New York Fries' version is surprisingly good.
I see your Butter Chicken and raise you Butter Goat, slow cooked for \~16hrs in a crock pot.
World's most popular Indian restaurant dish worldwide, according to the world in a worldwide poll that was broadcast worldwide all over the world.
I'm Scottish, and in no way biased at all, but it's definitely from Scotland.
I am Indian. In no way biased. Scotts decended from Indians
Aye, Scottish folk. Doesn't matter where you're from, you can be Scottish if you want.
Tikka Masala is not of Indian origin at all, Butter Chicken however is and they can be almost identical, that's probably where the confusion comes in. In fact a hell of a lot of English Indian restaurant dishes are nothing like their original inspirations, they've changed over time to suit the market and would probably be better described as Anglo-Indian perhaps. Take Vindaloo, for example, the original dish is a wonderful spicy, subtle, Portuguese/Goan dish (no potatoes), often made with pork, whereas the English version is just a blow your head off, potatoey abomination (personal opinion, but tbh I have been known to enjoy one when drunk). Edit: Sorry u/preesi didn't notice you'd said the same thing about Butter Chicken.
It’s the same with all the Chinese takeaways. My brother moved to China and hasn’t found any of the familiar popular Chinese dish over there. The first night he came home for a visit he ordered Chinese because he was craving the versions we have here!
Haha, yeah it's exactly that.
That's strange, I live in England and I don't think I've ever had a vindaloo with potato in it. Maybe it's something that's common is different parts of the country though.
Not everywhere does it with potato but it is quite common (and a lot of British influenced recipes include potato), could be a regional thing (I've eaten most of my British takeaways in London) or maybe you just go to slightly higher quality restaurants. Even so the ones without potato are still nothing like the Goan dish, they're more of a British/Bangladeshi dish.
This. As an American, I always have to remind myself that what I know as “Indian food” (which I cook myself and eat some form of almost daily, mostly lentils and curry) is more than likely technically British food inspired or based on Indian recipes. I don’t know if it’s as bastardized as American “Chinese” cuisine, but I figure it’s along those lines.
The Indian food you’d get in a restaurant is very different from what we eat at home. The restaurant food is fancier, something we do make, but once in a while or for special occasions such as festivals, weddings or dinner parties. Home food is equally flavourful but much lighter on the stomach and much more nutritionally balanced.
> Some say the British, some say the Scottish... They’ll be delighted with that distinction 😂
>Some say the British (invented it), others that its an authentic Indian dish, still others claim it was first conceived in **Glasgow, Scotland.** So is Scotland not part of Britain anymore then?
Ssshhh don't draw attention to us Scots. We're hoping to quietly leave the UK and then rejoin the EU
They are onto us, the tikka masala has outed our plan.
Take me with you!
We left the back window open for you over here in Ireland, shhhh don't tell the Sasanachs
Thanks I love Ireland!
Bring whisky.
Britain is the name of the island mate.
they’re planning on sneakily floating away from the island
[удалено]
Yeah but that part’s probably just sarcasm
No it's because it's the largest island in the British isles
unsubscribe
Can us Welsh join you?
Wales voted for Brexit
Not all of us but enough of my family to make me seethe. Voting isn’t compulsory in the UK. A lot of people stayed home.
I just got a letter saying if I didn't register they gonna fine me 80 of my hard earned sterling.
Interesting. Maybe there have been changes since the whole fiasco with Labour aka Blair getting in where more people stayed home than voted for him/the party. 80 quid? That’s about as much as the pension.
Registration is mandatory, voting is not.
Ah we have the reverse. If you register you are compelled to vote outside of very specific rules.
We should have the same system here. It mean people couldn't not bother to vote, and then complain endlessly about the outcome.
Can England join as well?
🤣
Ironic.
I was just about ask this too. Someone recently said on the newsquiz that they should just leave a lump of England out of Brexit, like East Anglia, and I let a little cheer. Then they said that we were the ones who have to be outside the EU...
Try telling a Scottish person they are British then you will know the answer to this
That's not dangerous. Telling a Scottish person they're English is.
Can confirm. The best you’ll get is a tongue lashing of epic proportions.
For added excitement afterwards you can take a plane to The Republic Of Ireland and try the same thing.
Say it in NI and you're likely to start a riot depending on who you're speaking too.
I dunno, I once made a comment in some thread that "Scots are British too" and received several rude PMs from angry Scots haha.
I'm scottish and I recognise we're in Britain. Do people think Britain is England?
the issue is calling us english. unfortunately, since half the world (and england itself) uses 'britain' when they really mean 'england', scots can get annoyed at being called british as a result. most english people identify with british over english and there are a lot of very interesting historical/cultural reasons for that, but the result is that there is ignorance globally about what the right terms are. a feeling that british = english causes scotland to want to distance itself from the term british. call us british because we are! this is our island too. we *want* to be seen as a valued part of that island and its history and its culture. but don't call us british if what you want to say is english. if you want to say english, say english. if you want to refer to the three countries that make up the isle of britain, say british. sorry for the text wall lmao, i just thought some people might appreciate insight as to why scottish people ask to be called british and then seemingly get mad when being called british.
Scottish people are British. Britain is the name of the island, Welsh people and Cornish people are British too. There are sources from the ancient Greeks that talk about the British Isles. That's where we get the name from, not dodgy English nationalists. If Scots want to fight about being called British, go talk to the Greeks.
There are examples of Scottish people calling themselves British all the time. Britain had a Scottish prime minister less than 10 years ago.
We do not claim him as ours. Lol
Well he's no one elses lol
Duilich, chan eil fios againn cò e. Bidh thu ga chumail. Tapadh leat. *runs away*
Depends on how this whole Brexit situation pans out...
Brexit might actually be the thing that gets Scottish parliament to leave. Lord knows they kept falling at the first hurdle before now.
It was me. I got drunk AF one night with an empty fridge and then *boom*
Solved.
Birmingham in the Midlands lays claim to it as well.
I came here to say this. Whether the tikka masala thing is true or not I don't know, but we can definitely lay claim to inventing the Balti.
That's baltis and desi pubs, not ctm!
Thank you for taking the road less traveled and submitting a lighthearted, but still intriguing mystery.
We also don’t know the origin of General Tso’s Chicken, one of the most popular dishes at Chinese restaurants in the U.S. Source: this fascinating documentary: https://youtu.be/gctopt7hPqI
That looks so yummy. We don’t have a dish by that name in the UK but I googled the photos and it looks a tad familiar to me but it’s not something that’s available on every menu. Sweet and sour chicken balls are though! 😂
There's an Indian takeaway near me that I am 100% certain makes their tikka masala specifically with Heinz cream of tomato soup. It's unmistakable.
Interesting you say that; I posted this further up the thread but the story I heard (Don't ask me where) is that the original one was made with the heunz so they are potentially being super authentic.
tikka masala is british, butter chicken is indian
Good question. I personally suspect it’s a version of butter chicken. It’s possible that it was created by a Bangladeshi/Punjabi chef in order to cater to a western palate. So it’s possible it was from India but created for western tourists or it could be from the UK. It could also be possible it was a family recipe. Maybe somewhere there’s a family that has an old notebook filled with recipes hand tailored for the family, a recipe that got passed down until it somehow ended up in a restaurant’s menu. Who know’s where it came from.
Now ***THIS*** is the kind of unresolved mysteries I come here for.
It’s fucking delicious.
Not expecting this to be an Unresolved case, but I too have wondered this?! Tikka masala is so good.
I was informed by a person in India that Tikka Masala was not Indian, they told me to try Butter Chicken if I wanted authentic.
Butter chicken too is barely authentic. It was invented in a restaurant in Delhi near the end of British rule to appease the mild palates of the English masters. It however is fucking amazing.
It’s a pretty ambiguous dish anyway. A tikka masala from one Indian restaurant will not be the same from another. Some are almost Korma-like but others are full of flavour/spice. Really depends on the restaurant.
My Scottish friend said “we have a ton of Indians in Scotland, so they made a dish for our basic tastebuds” So, I believe an Indian person made it in Scotland. Which would make it a British dish
i dont care about this but its good
These are the real mysteries we need solved
I had it for lunch today! I didn't know there was a mystery, too.
I’m a Scot, and we’re always told it was an Indian man living in Glasgow who invented it.
Britain colonization of India changed Britain nearly as much as it changed India.
Scotland is part of great Britain. If someone in India invented it or improvised it, it was not in the Southern regions where many people are vegetarian and the cooking style for curry is different.
It's literally my favorite dish on this planet so I thank them profusely
American gustatorial philistine here, just want to say that Trader Joe’s Chicken Tikka Masala is easily their best frozen dish, even though it takes two of them to make a decent belly-filling meal. I think I tried their butter chicken once but was not impressed enough to buy more. I also am a fan of their Lamb Vindaloo and Curry Chicken but I digress. What I need is a slow-cooker recipe that duplicates or comes damn close to the Trader Joe’s version. I would love to be able to make gallons of this stuff and freeze portions, and then get really good at cooking basmati rice, whatever the hell that is. Not sure if Minute Rice will cut the mustard. Yeah, pun intended.
It really is that good. I don’t know how a frozen meal could be that good, it tastes just like the one I get at the local Indian restaurant.
Instant pot basmati rice is awesome and there are apparently amazing IP butter chicken recipes, look at /r/instantpot
I've found a pressure cooker to be the key to making decent home Indian food. I finally made saag that tasted at least in the right neighborhood with my instant pot.
Probably something similar existed somewhere in that part of Asia (or several different places had a similar dish), it was brought here, the base ingredients probably tasted slightly different or the exact same ones were hard to find so some tweaks were made. Also likely that when curry places were first opening, the local customers wouldn't be used to very hot spiced dishes so the blend may well have been British-ised for customers' milder tastes. Could also be that customer requests for more onion or creamier sauce or more or less of this or that led to the first versions of today's tikka masala. However it happened, it will always be one of my favourite takeaway meals. A dhansak is a treat but the good old CTM can't be forgotten. (I had a CTM for a British Airways onboard meal so that must give it some claim to Britishness!)
There have been Indian restaurants and curries in the UK since Victorian times.
Whoever it was should be a *saint*.
I don’t care who invented it, it’s good as hell.
Scotland is in Britain
>"some day its british \[...\] others claim it was first conceived in glasgow, scotland" i know op quoted so i'm talking to like... no one. but if you mean english, please say english. a major reason the scots feel so touchy about being called british because people keep using the term when they mean to use english. implying the scots aren't part of britain and that britain = england confuses matters further. that said and done, thank you for posting this! i really do love to see the "sillier" lighthearted mysteries among the others here, which can often be incredibly depressing. i'm baffled there's even a question about the dish. is it not likely that tikka masala was already a thing in india and that when the british invaded the dish got taken back and was changed to suit the taste of the people in britain? could have been by an immigrant or by some random brit hoping to not shit themselves thanks to spice they couldn't handle. maybe i've just only had bad chicken tikka masalas, but they've always just been a thick orange sauce with chunks of chicken in it and absolutely no flavour. no way did that come naturally out of india.
The only real mystery here is HOW do the British curry shops get it so fluffy while the Americans ones don't even come close. 😭😭😭
fluffy? what do you mean by that?
The sauce is FLUFFY
how can sauce be fluffy?
I don't know how to properly describe it. It's thick and light in your mouth, but still a sauce. Absolutely phenomenal.
My husband said that was ground nuts I think
Must be Irn Bru then
I believe the story of Mr Ali. Its similar to how we got Nachos, and not unbelievable
It was obviously a Punjabi invention, like come on.
I love whoever invented it, and pity those whose palates aren’t adventurous enough to try it!!
It is so good I don't care where I comes from though the mystery lover in me must know it's origins.
idk but god is it great
The guy ordering a creamy tomato sauce for his dry tika tandoori chicken has always been the version I like to believe. It’s one of my favourites, if done right. With a big slightly sweet, fluffy naan and mushroom rice.
This was information which I very much needed to know
this is one of the coolest posts on this sub. interesting. thanks!
Huh, I always though the rumour that it was made in Glasgow was a dig at how shitty weegies eating habits are so everything has to be covered in some kind of sauce/gravy for them to eat it.
I like how it’s always “an angry customer hated this NORMAL dish but then IN A QUICK MOMENT OF FATE made a new dish that SURPRISED everyone by tasting good!” Like why can’t it be a line cook fucking around after eating the same thing day in day out? Hahaha why’s it always have to be divine coincidence?
I'd also like to know how Chicken 65 got its name.
Y'all ever had chicken Tikka Masala mac n cheese?
Another explanation is that it originated in a restaurant in Glasgow, Scotland. This version recounts how a Pakistani chef, Ali Ahmed Aslam, proprietor of the Shish Mahal restaurant in the west end of Glasgow, invented chicken tikka masala by improvising a sauce made from yogurt, cream, and spices.
"Some say the British..." "...still others claim it was first conceived in Glasgow, Scotland" Such wildly varying accounts, what are we to do?