Royal Indian Cuisine

FOOD

Matar paneer and chana masala give Royal’s buffet two recognizable curry choices, with mixed vegetables, biryani, naan and vegetable upma broadening the selection. Plain rice, fried fritters and other sauced dishes add more possibilities before the gulab jamun. The spread rotates, so these are representative offerings to look for rather than a fixed checklist for every lunch.

The naan comes in cut pieces with browned, blistered patches. It gives the curries a bread companion and makes a useful beginning for anyone who likes lunch to start with a favorite sauce. Take a piece with the dish that interests you most, then decide whether the next portion belongs with more bread or a little rice.

Matar paneer combines visible cubes of paneer and green peas in an orange sauce. The cheese and peas make it a distinct choice among the curries, with enough of its own identity to deserve a separate portion. It’s a familiar pairing for paneer enthusiasts and an approachable one for someone who hasn’t made this cheese part of lunch before.

Mixed vegetable curry adds potatoes, green beans and other vegetables in a sauced preparation. The pieces keep their different shapes, giving it a different character from the paneer dish. A portion can sit beside the rice or become the main interest with naan, rather than being treated as a token vegetable beside everything else.

Chana masala brings whole chickpeas in a brown-orange gravy, with chopped herbs scattered over the pan. It adds a substantial legume dish to the meal. Between the chickpeas, paneer and mixed vegetables, there are several ways to build a plate around the vegetable choices without simply repeating one curry in larger portions.

The buffet spread also includes several meat preparations and has included lamb, tandoori chicken, chicken tikka masala, chicken biryani and other dishes. This is not a vegetable-only occassion.

Biryani supplies colored long-grain rice with vegetables distributed among the grains. Give it room to remain a dish of its own instead of covering the whole portion with other sauces. Plain white rice is the simpler accompaniment when a curry is the main interest. There’s room for both approaches; they just needn’t happen in the same corner of the plate.

Vegetable upma offers another preparation, a pale, grainy semolina dish with small vegetable pieces. It makes a change from the long-grain rice and sauced curries. Small fried fritters broaden that part of the spread, too, offering appetizer-sized portions alongside the more substantial dishes. They leave room to try something beyond the first curry that caught your eye.

Gulab jamun is the familiar Indian sweet at the dessert end: browned round pieces resting in syrup, with a ladle for serving. A small bowl gives them a course of their own after the breads and curries. Save a little space before the final trip along the line. Dessert is much easier to enjoy when it hasn’t had to negotiate for the last available inch.