Tikka Masala out, Jalfrezi is UK’s No. 1 dish

The jalfrezi — a hot curry with green chillies, peppers, onion and tomatoes — has emerged as the most popular choice in UK's 10,000-odd Indian restaurants, piping chicken tikka masala as the nation's favourite dish.According to a new poll, the jalfrezi is the most popular dish in Britain's Indian restaurants; the second most popular was the madras, another hot dish that contains large amounts of chilli powder; followed by rogan josh, an aromatic Kashmiri dish traditionally made with lamb and red chillies.Chicken tikka masala only makes it into eighth place, according to the poll by Chaat!', the in-house magazine of the British Curry Club. Of the 1,058 people surveyed, 21% voted for the jalfrezi and 18% the madras. Rogan josh came third with 11%. The korma, a creamy dish known for its lack of heat, could only manage 10th place with just 2% of votes, 'The Daily Telegraph' reported.

Dave Jenkins, the editor of Chaat!, said: "It's really interesting to see that jalfrezi has topped the list. Being a spice lover myself, I think this is great news. People have been depending on the milder curries for too long now, so it's great to see some more adventurous

dishes topping the list."Gulam Noon of St John's Wood, who was responsible for selling readymade curries to British supermarkets in the 1980s, said he was not surprised by the latest findings. "People's taste buds have changed. It is not only Asian food but Italian, Mexican and Malaysian too. Restaurants used to dole out insipid curries. No longer. Also people are used to hot curries now," he said.

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PIZZA ITALIA

The Ancient Greeks covered their bread with oils, herbs and cheese. In Byzantine Greek, the word was spelled pita, meaning pie. The word has now spread to Turkish as pide, Serbo-Croatian and Bulgarian as pita, Albanian as pite and Modern Hebrew pittāh. The Romans developed placenta, a sheet of flour topped with cheese and honey and flavored with bay leaves. Modern pizza originated in Italy as the Neapolitan pie with tomato. In 1889, cheese was added.

King Ferdinand I (1751–1825) is said to have disguised himself as a commoner and, in clandestine fashion, visited a poor neighborhood in Naples. One story has it that he wanted to sink his teeth into a food that the queen had banned from the royal court—pizza.

In 1889, during a visit to Naples, Queen Margherita of Italy was served a pizza resembling the colors of the Italian flag, red (tomato), white (mozzarella) and green (basil). This kind of pizza has been named after the Queen as Pizza Margherita.

PIZZA TYPES

Neapolitan pizza (pizza napoletana): Authentic Neapolitan pizzas are typically made with tomatoes and Mozzarella cheese. They can be made with ingredients like San Marzano tomatoes, which grow on the volcanic plains to the south of Mount Vesuvius, and mozzarella di bufala Campana, made with the milk from water buffalo raised in the marshlands of Campania and Lazio in a semi-wild state (this mozzarella is protected with its own European protected designation of origin).[6] According to the rules proposed by the Associazione Vera Pizza Napoletana, the genuine Neapolitan pizza dough consists of wheat flour (type 0 or 00, or a mixture of both), natural Neapolitan yeast or brewer's yeast, salt and water. For proper results, strong flour with high protein content (as used for bread-making rather than cakes) must be used. The dough must be kneaded by hand or with a low-speed mixer.

After the rising process, the dough must be formed by hand without the help of a rolling pin or other machine, and may be no more than 3 mm (⅛ in) thick. The pizza must be baked for 60–90 seconds in a 485 °C (905 °F) stone oven with an oak-wood fire. When cooked, it should be crispy, tender and fragrant. There are three official variants: pizza marinara, which is made with tomato, garlic, oregano and extra virgin olive oil (although most Neapolitan pizzerias also add basil to the marinara), pizza Margherita, made with tomato, sliced mozzarella, basil and extra-virgin olive oil, and pizza Margherita extra made with tomato, mozzarella from Campania in fillets, basil and extra virgin olive oil.

Pizza in Lazio (Rome), as well as in many other parts of Italy, is available in two different styles: (1) Take-away shops sell pizza rustica or pizza al taglio. This pizza is cooked in long, rectangular baking pans and relatively thick (1–2 cm). The crust is similar to that of an English muffin, and the pizza is often cooked in an electric oven. It is usually cut with scissors or a knife and sold by weight. In pizza restaurants (pizzerias), pizza is served in a dish in its traditional round shape. It has a thin, crisp base quite different from the thicker and softer Neapolitan style base. It is usually cooked in a wood-fired oven, giving the pizza its unique flavor and texture. In Rome, a pizza napoletana is topped with tomato, mozzarella, anchovies and oil (thus, what in Naples is called pizza romana, in Rome is called pizza napoletana.

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