10 Things you didn't know about Birmingham Balti!
Birmingham is well known as the birthplace of the balti.
The Balti Triangle - an area covering parts of Sparkhill , Balsall Heath and Moseley , between Stratford Road, Wake Green Road and Alcester Road - is where many of the restaurants that first served up the dish were concentrated. This is still the best part of the City to find the dish cooked and served up in the authentically Pakistani Brummie way.
If you’ve ever tucked into a balti, you’re eating an amazing piece of Birmingham history and culture.
But how much do you really know about the dish?
So here’s 10 things you probably didn’t know about the balti, courtesy of Andy Munro, author of the book Going For A Balti.
1. The balti was the invention of a Pakistani restaurateur in the late 70s and the idea was to fuse Pakistani cooking with western tastes.
2. His restaurant, Adil, operated in the Balti Triangle for over 35 years closing in 2022 following the pandemic. He is honoured in Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.
3. The original steel pressed balti bowls were commissioned specially and made by a Smethwick firm.
4. The oldest remaining balti bowl still in use is estimated to have been used to serve up more than 5,000 baltis - British craftsmanship at its best!
5. A genuine Birmingham Balti is fast-cooked over a high flame (less than 5 minutes) and has to be served up in the dish in which it has been cooked.
6. A scientific study by Birmingham Food College purported to prove that eating a Birmingham Balti cooked and served in the same carbon steel balti bowl was equivalent to drinking 25 pints of Guinness in iron content!
7. It’s got nothing to do with Baltistan and gets its name from the Urdu word balti meaning bucket.
8. However, in Pakistan, there is a tribe called the Baltis but there is no evidence to suggest that they eat the dish.
9. Birmingham’s Balti has been featured in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal and is voted as one of Lonely Planets top world food experiences.
10. The name of the now-famous Balti Triangle was originally invented with the strapline ‘lost in a sea of spices’ (obviously a nod towards the similarly-titled Bermuda Triangle in which ships and planes have disappeared).
These and many more facts are contained in Andy Munro's book 'Going for a Balti' Get your signed copy HERE
Andy has a site dedicated to Balti, restaurant directory and other interesting facts. Visit Balti Birmingham Website By Andy Munro and David Bentley
Looking to eat an authentic Birmingham Balti? Check out The Association For The Protection Of Birmingham Balti for a list of restaurants serving the dish in the City.