Eating Indian food differs by country, but in the UK, a typical Indian meal usually goes as follows:
Papadam are brought to the table with relishes. These are usually raita, mango chutney, and chilli or lime pickle (tangy and sharp and/or hot), and increasingly these days tamarind sauce. The intention is that you break bits off the papadam and use the teaspoons to put relishes onto the pieces, rather than dip them.
Beer is the usual accompaniment for people who drink booze. There are two popular Indian lagers designed with curry eating in mind - Kingfisher and Cobra (which is actually a UK invention). Cold lager goes sooo well with this stuff. You may also check out the lassi drinks, which are yogurt milkshakes, either sweetened or salty - the latter may be an acquired taste. Lassi helps to despice your mouth too if you’re burning up, so remember this later in the meal!
Then there are starters - stuff like onion bhajia (onions in gram flour batter) or pakora (pastries with spiced meat or veg), or tandoori (barbecue) meats, often served with a tiny salad.
More beer!
The main course, different people do this different ways. I prefer the Asian style, where a load of dishes are ordered for the table and everyone helps themselves. However, some Brits want what they want and will dump the entire dish onto their plate. Usually there’s up to one meat dish per person, and some accompanying vegetable dishes. There are too many meat dishes to explain in this post, as they can be a variety of different meats (usually, but not always, avoiding beef or pork - though IIRC the original vindaloo was made with pork) or seafood, in sauces that may be based on coconut, cream, ground almonds, tomato, chilli, of varying levels of spiciness and heat, etc. However, some of the more popular veg dishes are saag paneer (spinach with cubed halloumi-like cheese), aloo gobi (spicy potatoes and cauliflower), chana masala (garbanzo beans in a spicy tomato sauce), tarka dal (lentil curry), mutter paneer (cheesy peas). Most people, even if they keep their own meat dish, will tend to share veg dishes. Unless they’re vegetarian.
Then there are the starches that accompany the above, which are usually rice (plain boiled, pilau - mildly spiced and lightly fried, or speciality fried), and breads, of which there are many varieties: nan, which is a puffy soft flatbread cooked in a tandoor (clay oven), chapatis which are like small tortillas, paratha, which is a flaky, buttery flatbread - and others. You tear bits off the bread and scoop the curries up with that, whereas the saucy dishes are usually spooned onto rice and the two are eaten together.
More beer please.
Then there are desserts, which are often disappointing versions of British desserts, but could also comprise kulfi, which is Indian ice cream, and if you’re lucky you might get Indian sweets, which are tooth-breakingly sweet candies, usually based on sweetened condensed milk, pastry or coconut, soaked in syrup.
Then some more beer.
I have been salivating the entire time I’ve been writing this.
