Indian Food in McAllen: A Beginner's Guide to Curries, Tandoori and Naan

If you haven't ordered Indian food before, the menu can look like a wall of unfamiliar words — korma, vindaloo, rogan josh, tikka. None of it is complicated once you know what each term actually means. Here's a plain-language guide using Indian Bell's real menu.

Curries, Explained by Style

"Curry" isn't one sauce — it's a category that covers a lot of different preparations. On Indian Bell's menu, the main styles are:

Korma — a rich, creamy sauce, generally the mildest and most approachable option. Available as chicken korma, Muglai korma, malai korma (lamb or goat), and a vegetable version.

Vindaloo — tangy and chili-forward, one of the spicier styles on the menu, available across chicken, lamb, goat, beef, and fish.

Rogan Josh — a slow-simmered, deep-red Kashmiri-style curry, available in lamb, goat, and beef.

Saag — built on a spiced spinach base, available with chicken, lamb, goat, chana (chickpeas), and paneer.

Madras Curry — a South Indian style, available with chicken, lamb, goat, and beef.

Tikka Masala — a tomato-cream sauce, available with chicken, lamb, goat, and paneer.

Butter Chicken — its own category, a mild, creamy tomato-butter sauce and the most commonly recommended starting point for first-time diners.

Tandoori Cooking

Tandoori refers to food cooked in a tandoor, a clay oven that reaches roughly 600°F to 900°F. The intense, radiant heat sears the outside of marinated meat almost instantly while keeping the inside tender — that's what gives tandoori chicken its charred exterior and juicy center. Indian Bell's tandoori section covers tandoori chicken, tandoori lamb chops, tandoori shrimp, tandoori paneer tikka, and five kabob styles, including a hariyali (herb-marinated) chicken tikka version.

Naan and Other Breads

Naan is a leavened flatbread baked directly on the wall of the tandoor. Indian Bell offers it plain, with butter, with cheese, with garlic, and with onion and chilli. Beyond naan, the menu also includes aloo paratha (potato-stuffed flatbread), Kerala paratha (a flaky layered bread), and tawa paratha (cooked on a flat griddle rather than in the tandoor) — worth knowing if you want something other than naan.

Putting It Together for a First Order

A reasonable first order: one tandoori item (tandoori chicken or a kabob), one curry (butter chicken or korma if you want mild, vindaloo if you want heat), a naan, and rice. That covers the tandoor, the curry section, and the bread program in one meal.