Balti addict Andy Munro has a day job working at Birmingham Council on the regeneration of the city but, as a sideline, heads up the Balti Association and helps novices navigate their way around the triangle’s 40 balti restaurants.
‘Balti is an entirely Birmingham thing, invented by the local Pakistani population in the mid-80s,’ says Munro. ‘They wanted to serve food in the bowl it was cooked in, in the traditional way, but instead of slow-cooking meat on the bone as they do in Pakistan, they had to adapt to suit Western tastes. So the balti bowl [a thin, pressed steel wok] was invented and the balti method of fast-cooking over a high flame, using meat off the bone, was born.’
On one of Munro’s tours, we watched the chef at the wonderfully named Punjab Paradise — right at the hub of the triangle — prepare a chicken balti to an authentic recipe using onions, tomatoes, ginger, garlic, garam masala, fenugreek, turmeric and paprika fried in vegetable oil.
Afterwards, we sat down to an authentic balti dinner, with our curries served in the steel bowls they were cooked in, and fresh naan bread for scooping it all up.
Munro will tailor-make tours to suit individual groups (8-16 people) but ours also involved a look around some traditional Indian stores, including a sweet shop, jeweller’s, clothes shop and grocery store. The post-dinner quiz — with prizes for the highest and lowest scorers — is a chance to test what you’ve learnt from your visit.
The tour costs £25 a head for groups of ten, including a two-course meal and a cookery pack to take home. To find out more, contact Andy Munro on +44 (0)7985 169 462.
Win tickets to see Birmingham City take on Arsenal and an authentic Balti experience at the Balti Triangle’s highly commended Al Frash restaurant
