6.275

7 (Wed) October 2015

Chicken Tikka Masala

3.25

at Kashmir

-Ermita, Manila-

with RK

Chicken tikka masala is an Indian curry dish.  Consists of chicken tikka, immersed in a tomato-based masala gravy.  While both components are staples of Indian cuisine, the combination of the two — tikka traditionally being served as is, perhaps a dipping sauce on the side — is considered to be a relatively new development.  One controversial theory holds that the dish was “invented” in the United Kingdom, where it’s widely available in mainstream pubs, not just Indian restaurants, and cooked at home, not just by Indians, prompting the foreign secretary to call it “a true British national dish.”  But really, it’s just another grilled meat in curry sauce, nothing new about it — indeed, the definition above sounds eerily familiar (see for comparison 3.285 Murgh Makhani).  In any case, the dish is now a popular item in South Asian restaurants around the world.

My opinion of this restaurant continues to rise (see most recently 6.086 Eggplant Tikka).