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Britain is not known for its high quality national cuisine.
Soggy pukka pies, greasy chips, bland white fish lathered
in fatty batter and lumpy gravy are synonymous with the incongruous
juxtaposition of 'England' and 'food'. But, whilst the Brits
try and climb out of their ill repute as the worst cuisine
in Europe, another kind of cuisine has being slowly creeping
out of the closet from altogether more exotic roots. The Balti
is more Birmingham than Pakistan, a strange hybrid of East
meets West cuisine that takes its inspiration from the ancient
Moghuls and adapts it to the dynamics of a Midlands city on
the wrong side of midnight. Welcome to the bizarre world of
British Balti Culture.
Origins of the balti
Balti cuisine originates from the Northern Pakistan region
of Baltistan, once a kingdom with its own royal family high
in the harsh and cold Karakoram Mountains. One of the
most remote regions in Asia, Balti folk are surprisingly welcoming.
Once nomadic people who carried little in the way of cooking
utensils, the Baltis developed a cooking technique that was
quick, simple and involved just one small pot. 'Balti' translates
literally as cooking bucket, and the balti dish, known as
a karai, is a two handled pan like a small, shallow
wok in which the dish is both cooked and served. Controversially,
some believe that the term 'balti' is an insult in Hindi,
coined to degrade the British larger louts by making them
eat 'out of a bucket' - the last laugh being on the restauranters.
What's hot in the balti bucket
Influenced by the neighbouring cuisines of India, China,
Iran and Afghanistan, Balti cooking is literally a 'hot' pot
of Central Asian food cultures. Traditionally, Lamb, goat
or prawns are the main meat although in the west chicken is
favoured and vegetarian variants abound. The cooking style
is quick, like a stir fry, and assembled straight in the pot,
thereby retaining the freshness of the ingredients and the
heat. The exotic aromatic spices of the ancient Moghul traders
have found their way into the dishes which are traditionally
eaten with the right hand only, but more conventionally in
the west the stew is eaten with an unleavened naan bread (peshwari
- stuffed with honey, raisin and almonds or Keema - stuffed
with meat are delicious vairants) or aromatic basmati rice.
From mountains to the Midlands
The Balti in the 21st century is more about Birmingham than
Baltistan. During the 1950's - 70's, thousands of Pakistani
immigrants arrived in Britain and formed a community in the
industrial 2nd city of England, Birmingham. They brought with
them the unique Balti cuisine and pretty soon their cheap
cafes selling traditional fayre sprung up all over the poorer
parts of Birmingham like Sparkhill, Moseley and
Sparkbrook. They soon became a hit with Pakistani families,
students and locals alike, typically characterised with a
menu trapped underneath a wipe free clean glass table top.
This area expanded and is now known as 'the balti belt' or
'the balti triangle'. On long streets within Ladypool Road,
Stratford Road and Moseley Road nearly every other shop is
a balti house, their lurid neon signs and cheap and bountiful
menu (typically costing around $6 US for a main dish) and
offers to bring in your own drink will mean no visitor to
this fair city need go hungry.
Quality varies so it's worth asking around or studying the
menu before you make a decision. Starters include onion bhanji
(friend spicy battered giant onion balls), samosa (curried
meat or veg in pastry parcels) and usually a few poppadoms
and yoghurt or spicy dips and salad are generously thrown
in for free. If you're not already stuff, the meal is finished
with a kulfi, a spicy Indian ice cream.
Balti fever takes over Britain
Word quickly spread of the wonders of the Balti from the
centre of England, the balti soon became hot stuff with many
cities with Asian communities building up collections of curry
and balti houses, the most infamous outside of Birmingham
being Rusholme in Manchester and Brick Lane in
East London where going out for a 'Ruby Murray' (curry) is
part of the typical Friday night drinking and dining mix.
Although collectively known as 'Indians' they more likely
to be owned by Pakistani or Bangladeshi first or second generation
immigrants who will serve a mix of cuisines from the region
including pork, Indian beer, and other non-authentic ingredients.
The curry is a fine example of how multi-cultural British
society is, particularly in its foods, where authenticity
is dumbed down in the creation of a 'one size fits all' variant
of Asian cuisines.
Indians are as commonplace in the UK as Mexican restaurants
are in California. Now most curry houses in the UK offer Balti
cuisine, the traditional chicken tikka massala is the No.
1 dish of choice for Brits - toppling traditional British
cuisine like Sunday Roast or Fish n' chips in popularity.
A lot of Indian food pundits who shunned the lowly British
Balti have now made an about turn in the face of its popularity
throughout Western Europe and Indian restaurants are the most
commonplace and popular in the country. The Balti restaurant
has taken on and conquered the popularity of Tandoori restaurants.
Long gone are the menus steamed underneath glass tabletops
and quality service and diversity of dishes means that Britain
is still the place to try the most innovative and delicious
food outside of the Indian subcontinent.
But the curry is not merely a means of sustenance whilst
in Britain - curry has become initiated as part of a wider
youth culture. A good night out drinking is almost invariably
topped off with a curry - with lads competing as to who will
dare to take on the ultra strong vindaloo, 'loo' being the
operative word as the next day caressing the armitage shanks
is a likely outcome. To the dismay of restaurant owners, many
of whom are used to frequent drunken racist taunts from their
customers, curry culture was invariably never taken seriously.
However, as Britain becomes yet more multicultural, Indian
food is starting to be noticed again with the Tamarind
restaurant in London's Mayfair becoming the first michelin
starred Indian restaurant. The curry experience is wholly
and quintessentially English and nothing like what you would
find back home in Pakistan.
Trying a balti in Birmingham
The beauty of the balti is its simplicity of design but yet
its infinite variety, with its range of influences from Kashmir
aromatic spices, moghul emperors dining feats to 'winter foods'
of the highest mountains. Authentically, a good balti is dry,
oily and spicy but in Birmingham what would have been vegetarian
dishes in Baltistan have been augmented with a kaleidoscope
of variants indigenous to Birmingham - like the novelty 'blue
balti' celebrating the Birmingham City Football Club and tropical
meats like crocodile tipping a scale into the pot. All tastes
are catered for from the novice to the serious curry-holic
- from sweet and mild to hot cistern inducing. Why not try
a banana and cream balti or the Balti Chicken Malaya with
pineapple, lentils and cherries as a bizarre main course come
pudding, or perhaps a less appetitizing boiled egg balti.
If you can't see the variation you want just ask and most
restaurants are happy to cater for individual tastes. The
unique balti spices include garlic, ginger, coriander, chilli,
clove, cassia bark, lovage, methi, aniseed, fennel, cumin
and garam massala. Vegetable are often weird and wonderful,
including peas, tomatoes and aubergine, spinach, chick peas,
ladies fingers (okra) and paneer cheese and potatoes are common
in starters. In fact, the balti is seen as a veritable pantry
raid in which any leftover can be successfully 'baltied' into
the pot mix. Why not try for the adventurous a 'Balti Tropical'
combining meat, chicken and prawns together or an 'Exhausting
Balti Dish' whose epitaph is that 'it will exhaust you eating
it'.
Freshness of the ingredients and preparation is what makes
an exceptional balti over the everyday street variant. The
sauces are prepared beforehand and added after the stir fry.
This makes Balti a perfect way to approach Indian cooking
from the west as there is no need to spend hours sautéing,
steaming and simmering - a balti can be made at home in a
matter of minutes.
But when in Birmingham, why cook at home when the streets
are a microcosm of the Indian subcontinent foodie empire.
Not only will you be treated to a meeting with the lively
Pakistani community of Birmingham but a trip to the city will
encounter other colourful locals in the form of the 'brummies',
some of the most good natured citizens in all the United Kingdom,
although American tourists are unlikely to understand their
curious indigenous Black Country accent, language and customs.
To get you started:
"Awwl-write - yowse fancy a bawltie?" (Trans:
Hello, would you like to go out for a curry tonight?)
"Nowww babs, I'm off ta' Bull Ring." (Tans:
No, fine friend, I'm going to the Bull Ring Market (Britain's
first shopping mall dating from the 1960's))
Other things to see and do in Birmingham
Birmingham still has something of a bad press amongst Brits
as being the grim industrial centre of England. Lonely
Planet describe it as a 'rather dreary city' little worth
spending more than a few hours in. Not so! Birmingham is a
thriving cultural and historic centre which you could happily
loose yourself in for many days. Why not:
- Visit some of Birmingham's great range of museums and art
galleries including the Science Museum in Aston Park
and the Ikon Gallery off Broad Street.
- Go shopping - Birmingham has a great range of high street
shops as well as the famous Bull Ring Market for foods
and Rag Market for second hand clothes. In Birmingham,
retro is cool, this is the home of mod rockers Ocean Colour
Scene as well as the Brum Beat movement of the 1960's
with the likes of the Moody Blues. Check out the hip
arty suburb of Moseley where flares have never gone out of
fashion. Did we mention Birmingham's own enfant terrible Ozzy
Osbourne?
- Annually in September, the Arts Council hold a 3 day free
festival called 'Arts Fest' in which the many cultural
aspects of the city are celebrated around the city, from lo-fi
electronic music to fringe theatre and Kathakali Indian Dance.
- Check out Birmingham wonderful network of traditional canals,
offering great opportunities for strolls as well as boat trips.
Traditional pubs exist around the canals which weaves straight
through the city and the canal side links on to the entertainment
region of Broad Street where a conference hall, symphony
hall and theatre as well as other swish cocktail bars and
international restaurants are situated.
Other things to see and do in Baltistan
- Climb the mighty K2, the 2nd largest mountain in
the world, nestled amongst dense glaciers offering some of
the most startling landscapes for trekking in the world in
the Karakoram Mountains and highway, how of 10 of the
world's top 30 highest mountains.
- Study the classical Tibetan language with the masters of
Chitral in the region known as 'little Tibet'.
- In the second week of August, visit the major Baltistan
town of Skardu for the famous Polo Festival celebrating
Pakistan's Independence Day.
- During the summer months of June - September, the icy plains
of Deosai are accessible for trekking and a plethora
of amazing wildlife can be seen here like the Himalayan brown
bears, the endangered snow leopard, golden marmots and the
snow trout. |
