Pilau is a rice dish: the rice cooks with spices, and often with vegetables, and sometimes with meat, so the flavour goes into the rice itself — not poured on afterwards. You will also see the spelling pilaf; it is the same kind of dish. English uses the word for South Asian, Middle Eastern, and Central Asian cooking, and it is ordinary food language in British and Caribbean English, not slang and not fancy. Though actually, it is easy to picture the wrong plate. It is not Taiwan 燴飯 (sauce over rice), and it is not fried rice: the rice usually simmers in the spiced liquid. Some versions add nuts or dried fruit; some are quite plain, just spice and rice.

抓飯（香料入味的米飯，不是燴飯）