Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm struggling to understand menus at Indian restaurants. I am a vegetarian and just started eating at them. We went to Commonwealth and I LOVED the malai kofta. It's a little fancy to take my kids, but another restaurant has PANEER KAJU MALAI. Is it similar? Like Saag Paneer (my other favorite) and Palak Paneer are similar? I hate how much research I have to do before I go to an Indian restaurant, there are so many in Bethesda and they all use similar, but different terms. How do I know what I'll like??? Any suggestions?

Yes, many restaurants use different names for the same kind of stuff. They are coming up with many new names for dishes now.

Kaju - cashew

Paneer - Indian homemade cheese

Malai - cream

Makkhan/ Makhani - Butter/Buttery. (You will see butter chicken also called malai murg, murg makani etc.)

Palak - spinach

Kofta - fried balls of some ingredient

Murg - chicken

Sabji/subji - vegetable

Pakoda (or pakode) - Fried salty fritters.

Aloo - Potatoes

Hari-bhari - something that has a green component. It could be a green chutney, a green curry or some veggies

Maharani/Maharaja - Queen/King - denotes that some dish is either the "queen" of dishes or came from a royal k
itchen

Shahi - Royal

Tukda - Piece (a dessert called Shahi Tukda was a deep fried toast dipped in sweetened and thickened milk with nuts was called Shahi Tukda)

Anonymous wrote:Ask the staff to explain if you have questions.