Our Macedonian and Greek Chili owners were brilliant marketeers. They listened to their largely Germanic customers and adapted an ethnic Balkan dish – chili spaghetti or saltsa kima – into a shredded cheddar cheese-topped All-American dish called the Threeway. We all know that a Threeway means three things – a starch covered with meat sauce topped with cooling dairy. In our case it was spicy-sweet Cincinnati Chili over tender noodles topped with a mound of shredded sharp cheddar cheese.

This threeway concept applies to many foods around the world – think lasagna, moussaka, pastichio, bacon and cheese topped spaetzle – the list goes on. I found Cincinnati’s new ethnic Threeway in the spicy Chicken Karahi dish at a new Pakistani Halal Restaurant in Sharonville called Nawab Pakistani and Halal Meats.

I was on sort of a roundup of Indian restaurants near where I work this past week. I gotta have a go-to Indian restaurant for lunch. I ate at some really bad ones, but saw this small little restaurant with about 6 tables and though I’d try out their Friday buffet to get a scope of their dishes.

They had some of my faves – like the curried cauliflower dish, chicken tandoori, and their naan, which is puffy, crispy and delicious. But there was this new super spicy chicken dish that I fell in love with and went back for seconds.

I told the owner I thought the red spicy chicken was awesome and he told me it was called Chicken Karahi – a dish from his native Pakistan, and this was the only place in Cincinnati that served it. I was intrigued.

So when served over rice and drizzled with a necessary cooling portion of the creamy yogurt, cucumber and mint sauce called Raita – the spicy meat over starch with cooling dairy formula of the Threeway is met. The side Greek salad to a Threeway becomes the kachumber salad. And, the oyster crackers of the Cincy Threeway are replaced with naan bread to sop up the luscious leftover spicy sauce. The after dinner chocolate mint is replaced by candy coated cardamom seeds that are available at the register, dolled out by a classy silver spoon.

Chicken Karahi is a spicy, homestyle curry that you can find apparently everywhere on the streets and homes of Pakistan (and Northern India) – sort of like the Pakistani national dish. It’s named after the two handled deep wok-like pot its made in – the karahi. There are goat and beef karahis as well with similar sauces, but chicken karahi seems like what you’d find the most of on say a market on Food Street in the Gawalmandi Quarter of Pakistan.

Nawab describes their chicken karahi modestly as “chicken with onion, peppers and tomato sauce,” which doesn’t give it near the justice it deserves. I would describe it as a delightfully spicy orgy of the tastebuds with every savory Indian spice you can imagine. Like the 18 spices of Cincinnati chili, chicken kahari contains a long list including cumin, coriander, ginger, Kashmiri red pepper or other suitable hot pepper, garlic, turmeric, garam masala, onion and tomatoes. It’s garnished with fresh cilantro and julienned ginger, and of course a drizzle of cooling Raita.

I will definitely be going back and am now a devoted convert to Cincinnati’s new Pakistani Threeway.