If you think that the national dish of England is still fish and chips, then you also probably think that England has a car industry, that England has working red telephone boxes and doubledecker buses and that it rains a lot. But if you think this, then you?d be wrong... apart from the last one.

Doubledeckers have been replaced with single storey, and in some parts, bendy buses, everybody has mobile phones rendering the need for phone boxes obsolete and most car marques have been bought by foreign car manufacturers.

The English national dish is now the Chicken Tikka Masala, which is a hybrid cuisine; an Indian curry made for English taste buds.

It was therefore of no real surprise that when I was invited for lunch at the Casablanca restaurant at the Royal Paradise Hotel, I was served it.

Perhaps responding to a need caused by the increase of Arab visitors to the island, many Indian restaurants have opened up in Phuket and especially Patong. Yet Pakistani-born restaurant manager, Moazzam Butt, was quick to point out: ?We are the only high dining Halal-certified restaurant in Phuket. We get all our food from halal markets and we just have the one kitchen so everything is prepared in the halal way.?

Now, being English, I of course like Indian food and appreciate the exciting flavours, my brother however has an almost worrying fondness for the cuisine and eating with him at a particularly good Indian restaurant allows me an insight into the embarrassment that Billy Crystal?s character must have felt in When Harry Met Sally.

All of the incredible meats that I tasted on that memorable afternoon were cooked in a tandoor oven. The word ?tandoori? is an adjective meaning ?pertaining to the tandoor? and is used to describe a dish cooked in a tandoor - which is a cylindrical clay oven with hot coals at the bottom that slowly cooks the meat.

For my appetiser, I was served Jhingha Jil Jikka (320 baht) which is sesame seed coated fired prawns that seemed to capture an endless variety of Indian spices.

I was also lucky enough to be served a Chicken Neza Kebab (250 baht). Neza is Urdu for spear. Choice cuts of chicken are literally speared and dipped in the oven and roasted over the glowing embers for no less than an hour and twenty minutes. The meat is rotated constantly so that it does not burn.

Lazy food reviews are full of superlatives and exaggerations, but that slightly salty chicken was the most succulent and tender meat that I have ever tasted. And knowing that it had taken so long to prepare made me only appreciate the chicken more and thank my lucky stars that my brother wasn?t there.

Sensing my satisfaction throughout my dining, Mr Butt said, ? When I first came to Phuket (23 years ago) I noticed that Phuket people and the chefs didn?t know the food so well. Why are people eating like this I thought??

It was this that led Mr Butt to pursue a career in the restaurant business to where he can now quite confidently declare, ?Our food is the best, we have an open kitchen so that the guests can see that it is freshly prepared and of a high quality.We have many returning guests.?

When Mr Butt finally brought my main course before me and I realised that it was to be Chicken Tikka Masala (220 baht), I have to say I was slightly disappointed. The masala is rarely a curry afficiando?s first selection, owing to its mild and slightly bland ?English? taste. However, despite this, I found it to be deliciously creamy and tomato-ey. The barbecued marinated boneless chicken is served with a curry of yoghurt cooked with masala spices and the yellow rice served with saffron was cooked to perfection.

It was really delicious and - as Indian tradition and etiquette permits - the nan bread can be dunked and dipped and swirled in the sauce to gather up the very last delicious drops.

The food was incredible and if you are a fan of Indian food in a wonderfully relaxed and luxurious setting, then the Casablanca restaurant situated within the Royal Paradise Hotel will be ideal for you.

Disregarding the Chicken Tikka Masala dish, the wealth of food on display is purely authentic Indian and Arabic cuisine and Surat Kanthanakit, Director of Food and Beverage explained why, ?We don?t do fusion food here, the food has got to be authentic and not changed, the taste has to remain the same. You can make a nice modern presentation with nice plates but the food needs to taste like the dish... it has to have the right ingredients.?

I leaned back and relaxed while drinking some sweet Arabic tea and felt nostalgic, this was just like being at home... without the rain, of course.