As National Curry Week (3rd-9th October) comes to the end, London Mums explore what the most popular Curry Dishes in the British Capital are. Are we pronouncing the dishes correctly?
The exotic names of Indian cuisine can leave certain curries difficult to pronounce for some, which is why London Mums asked the language expert team at Preply to tell us how to correctly pronounce some of the most popular dishes.
What are most popular Curry Dishes in London?
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Ceylon (Pron. Suh-lon)
This curry comes from Sri Lanka (formerly known as Ceylon). The key ingredients in a Ceylon curry is coconut, lime and a hot curry powder mix specifically called Ceylon. This curry is generally hot.
This can be regularly mispronounced as “kay-lon” but the correct pronunciation is “suh-lon”.
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Makhani (Pron. Muh-kuh-nee)
Makhani is another name for Butter Chicken curry. It has a tomato and butter-based sauce with cream and a blend of spices. Generally served as a mild, rich dish for those who don’t like too much heat in their curry.
This is sometimes pronounce “mak-hani” but the correct pronunciation is “muh-kuh-nee”.
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Dhansak (Pron. Dan-sak)
Often described as the sweet and sour of curries, the Dhansak usually has lemon and sugar in the recipe as well as lentils. A medium to medium-hot dish, the use of the lentils comes from the original Parsee origins of the recipe, where many types of dhal were added.
Dhansak is commonly mispronounced “dahan-sak” but the correct pronunciation is quite simply “dan-sak”.
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Peshawari (Pron. Pesh-awar-y)
Peshawar is a city in Pakistan, Peshwar is a spelling mistake. One of the most popular dishes you will find is the Peshawari Chicken Karahi. It has lots of spices, garlic and ginger with heat from green chillies, so it will be fairly hot but not blazing.
Due to the common spelling error, this is commonly mispronounced “pesh-wari”, but the correct way is “pesha-wari”.
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Mughlai (Pron. Moog-lie)
Typically a Mughali style will be mild or medium and quite rich and creamy with nuts, yoghurt and ginger as key ingredients. This reflects the Persian influence on the dish.
This can be commonly mispronounced as “mug-la-ee” but the correct way to say this is “moog-lie”.
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Thali (Pron. Taa-lee)
A thali isn’t a specific curry, when you see the words thali on a menu it means you are able to order 4 or 5 small bowls of different curries and side dishes served together on the round dish. Usually served with some rice and bread.
However, this is commonly mispronounced as “pha-lee” but the correct way to say this is “taa-lee”.
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