Spicy Food in Ajman: What Is Actually Hot on a Pakistani Menu

Two kinds of people search for this. The ones who want their food genuinely hot and keep being disappointed, and the ones who want it mild and keep getting ambushed.

Both are usually ordering wrong, because a Pakistani menu does not label heat and the names give almost nothing away. "Karahi" tells you the pan, not the chilli. "White" tells you more than most people realise. Here is the card sorted by heat, in both directions.

First: there are two different heats

This is the part that clears up most of the confusion.

Chilli heat comes from capsaicin, in green and red chillies. It builds across a meal, sits at the back of the throat, and does not fade quickly. This is what people mean when they say spicy.

Pepper heat comes from peppercorns, black or white. It is sharper, arrives faster and leaves faster, and it hits the front of the mouth rather than the throat. Most people who cannot handle chilli are perfectly comfortable with pepper.

A dish can be strongly flavoured and peppery without being hot in the sense you are worried about. Several of ours are exactly that, and they are the ones visitors most often avoid for no reason.

The hot end of the card

Dish	AED	Where the heat comes from
Zafran chicken karahi, half	15	Tomato, ginger and green chilli, finished with coriander
Zafran mutton karahi, half	30	Tomato and green chilli, a little more gravy
Beef nihari	10	Finished at the table with ginger, green chilli and lemon
Veg of the day	5	Cooked down with tomato and green chilli
Chicken achari handi	25	Pickling spices and mustard seed, with a sour edge

The two house karahis are the chilli dishes. If heat is what you came for, that is the order, and the mutton version at AED 30 a half is the better one for it because thirty minutes in the pan concentrates everything.

Beef nihari is the interesting one, because the heat is in your hands. The green chilli, ginger and lemon go on at the table rather than in the pot. Add all of it and it is the hottest thing on this list. Add none and it is a deep, slow beef stew. Same AED 10 either way.

Achari is a different sensation entirely. Pickling spices, mustard seed and a genuine sourness. People expecting chilli find it unfamiliar rather than hot. It is the most distinctive thing in the handi section.

What sounds hot but is not

This is where people get it wrong in the other direction.

Mutton Shinwari karahi, AED 34 a half. Reputation says this is the fierce one. It is not. Shinwari is meat, tomato, salt and the animal fat rendered out of the meat, and that is close to the whole list. It is intense and salty rather than hot. Nothing hides in it, which is why it is the dish to judge a kitchen by, but chilli is not what it is doing.

Mutton Charsi karahi, AED 32 a half. Namkeen, slow rendered, finished with black pepper and coriander. Strong, rich, peppery. Not a chilli dish.

Chicken and mutton Peshawari, AED 18 and AED 34 a half. Cooked down hard with very little beyond tomato and fat. The flavour is concentration, not heat.

There is a longer page on how Shinwari, Charsi and white karahi actually differ.

The mild end of the card

The half of the menu that gets skipped, usually by people who have decided desi food is not for them or not for their children.

Dish	AED	Why it is mild
Chicken pulao, small	10	Cooked in chicken yakhni. Aromatic, the mildest main here
Special beef pulao, small	10	The same method on beef stock. Mild by design
Chicken tikka, leg or chest	10	Off the charcoal, marinade led, no chilli to speak of
Malai boti	25	Cream marinade. The gentlest thing on the grill
Special butter chicken	25	Tandoori chicken folded into tomato and butter
Chicken white handi	26	Cream, yoghurt and white pepper, no chilli heat
Chicken white karahi, half	18	Yoghurt and cream based, no tomato, black pepper forward
Mutton white karahi, half	32	Yoghurt, cream and white pepper. Rich and mild

The white dishes are the answer for anybody who wants a serious desi meal without chilli. They are not watered down versions of the hot ones. They are a separate tradition built on dairy and pepper instead of tomato and chilli, and the mutton white karahi at AED 32 a half is one of the best things we cook.

More on white karahi specifically, and on the handi section.

If you are ordering for a mixed table

The common situation: one person wants it hot, somebody else cannot take chilli, and there are children.

Order across the two columns rather than compromising in the middle. A compromise dish satisfies nobody. What works:

• A Zafran mutton karahi, half, AED 30 for the chilli side of the table
• A chicken white handi, AED 26 for the mild side
• Chicken pulao, small, AED 10 for children
• Four tandoori roti, AED 1 each
• Two lassi, AED 5 each

AED 80 for four people, with everybody eating what they actually wanted.

If you are not sure what is in something, ask at the counter. It is a short menu and the people behind it cooked the food.

What actually cools chilli down

Worth knowing, because most people reach for the wrong thing.

Water does not work. Capsaicin is not water soluble, so water spreads it around the mouth rather than removing it.

Dairy does. This is why lassi at AED 5 is on every desi menu in the world, and why biryani comes with raita. The salty lassi works better against chilli than the sweet one, though the sweet one is the more popular order.

And at the end: kulfi at AED 6, or a matka falooda at AED 10. Cold, milky, and the correct finish to a meal that got away from you.

Finding us

Shop 8/1, ground floor, Amman Street, Ajman Industrial Area 2, beside Nesto Hypermarket. Free street parking directly outside, step free from the pavement, indoor and outdoor seating, families welcome at every table.

Open 7:30 am to midnight, every day, including Fridays and public holidays. Call or message 050 720 8707. We answer in English, Urdu, Hindi and Arabic.

We do not deliver — a karahi does not travel and the charcoal is half the reason to come. The full menu with every price is on this site, each area of Ajman has its own page with the route in, and there is the case for this kitchen dish by dish.