Turbaned and bejeweled Kashmiri princes recline on soft nan pillows, sipping chai as servants scamper over rugs of a luxuriant weave and between silk curtains rippling and fluttering in the light breeze of a Srinagar palace pavilion.
Authentic curry is a heady experience. It's all about piquant flavors, bracing chili heat and a couple of cold pilsners. It begins with those heavy aromas wafting through the air and sparking your synapses. And it ends, inevitably, with a large chair and an evening of gentle, amusing burps.
Key to this gastronomic bliss is the subtle combinations of spices used in Indian cooking — how they make it possible for even the most veteran aficionado to find something new in a cuisine they thought familiar. Everyone's got their safety order, of course (mine's a lamb dopiaza), but there's always something on the menu for when you feel like going off-piste: yams with Keralan gravy, a dry mutton biryani or the tangy, toasty Meen Kulambu. Or vindaloo for the irredeemably sadistic.