The Balti Bowl Story
Faces of Birmingham Balti Clockwise from top left; The late 'Yacoub' 1st generation Pakistani immigrant and restaurateur of legendary 'Royal Naim', Zaf, Master Balti Chef from 'Shababs', Andy Munro, Author of 'Going for a Balti' and Lora Munro Birmingham Balti Bowl Company.
The Balti Bowl Story.
In the late 1970’s in an area of Birmingham known as ‘The Balti Triangle’ the first Balti restaurants appeared. Opened by 1st generation Pakistani immigrants, the Balti restaurants that sprang up reached their peak in the mid 90’s, and were basic café style establishments, usually with glass topped tables with the menu displayed underneath.
My Dad, grew up in the area and having always had a taste for exotic and unusual foods, reveled in exploring the new greengrocers selling strange sounding and looking vegetables and the whiff of spices that became part of the smellscape in the streets he called home. Balti, was not about flock wallpaper, mood lighting and ‘authentic Indian’, instead the basic establishments were more cafe style, a Saturday night cheap thrill, with the thrill being the theatre of the dish itself with it’s hot and heady aroma. Fresh spices and off the bone meat, flash stir fried in a flat-bottomed, thin carbon steel, two handle, wok style bowl- the balti.
The balti served charred and caramelised in its blackened bowl, spitting and too hot to the touch, then the blistered naan slides in, fresh from the tandoor and the size of a small country, to tear and share. Brummie’s lapped up this new vibe, far removed from the more opulent curry houses with their sitar music and waiters in dickie bows. But also far away from the meat and two veg of more familiar British fare at that time. Balti was a bit rock and roll, a bit of an outsider, doing things it’s own way, Balti was, and still is a culinary metaphor for Birmingham.
Dad, a Brummie maverick seemed the ideal choice as it’s unofficial expert.
The Balti, first served up by the restaurant ‘Adil’s’, commissioned the bowls to be made at a local metal bashers in Smethwick. Perhaps a Brummie interpretation of something similar found back home, but the unique Birmingham made bowl and style of cooking and serving the dish, became it’s own invention, a Brummie icon and what the crowds came for. Before too long, over 100 ‘balti restaurants’ thrived in Birmingham, mainly in the triangle newly packed out with Western customers craving a hot hit of spice. Other British Indian places around the UK starting serving up the fashionable ‘balti’ usually without an idea of what it actually was, but keen to cash in on the trend. Supermarkets and celeb chefs followed suit...all doing it wrong.
Dad became a sort of Birmingham balti correspondent, and along with original restaurant owners helped to set up an association to create a communal voice to rep the dish. He showed The Hairy Bikers and the late Sir Terry Wogan around the Triangle and as an original blogger focusing solely on balti, published hundreds of reviews in a number of balti guides. Such was his passion that he worked what seemed constantly on a voluntary basis with the restaurant owners, many his friends, to promote, what was considered Birmingham’s signature dish. Cries in our house of ‘not balti again!’ can’t we go for a carvery like everyone else?’. Now I see those moments, as a kid the connection to the original restaurant owners, hearing how proud they were of their kids doing well at school, when they were next going back to Pakistan, a glimpse in to a world so far from mine was a gift, and without doubt gave me a love of spice, a respect and curiosity of different cultures, especially Pakistan and a big appetite to travel.
In the early noughties the balti bowl metal bashers ceased to trade, the son not wanting to carry on the business. At first, no one was bothered, hadn’t noticed the bowls had gone; Balti bowls being so long lasting (some restaurants have bowls from 40 years ago) and they age like a fine wine, owed to the natural patina build up which gives flavor complexity. However as time went on the restaurant’s original bowls were being retired and restaurateur’s complained of inferior bowls from abroad just not being the same.
Dad with his 'Essential Street Balti Guide' in the 90's posing with a one handled Balti Bowl.
For over a decade Dad was regenerations manager in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter and this meant, somewhat fatefully he had ties with a few steel works based in the quarter. The essence of the dish is the bowl and when it seemed the dish itself could be in danger, Dad had to act! After discussions with an established manufacturer then based in the Jewellery Quarter, the idea to bring the manufacturing of the bowl home to Birmingham was born.
The bowls were designed and manufacturing began. The idea was just to run off a few hundred and ensure restaurants were well supplied to enable them to continue to serve up a real Birmingham Balti, preserving it’s heritage and keeping the legend alive. The machine used, is a now little used traditional metal press, which we thought would maybe make a good showpiece for a local museum and preserve the Birmingham Balti story after we'd done our balti bowl run, and well, that was it….Or so we thought.
Over the years, Birmingham’s Balti has suffered badly from sloppy misrepresentation and we hope our Birmingham made bowls will help to restore both it’s credentials and position in British culinary history. We're hopeful too that those first generation immigrants who created the Birmingham Balti, will in time secure their rightful place and be celebrated not just for their courage, but as innovators in bringing a new style of cooking to the British Indian Restaurant scene, one that deserves both it’s own unique story and its history preserved.
In 2021 due to our original factory selling their beautiful site in the Jewellery Quarter to developers, they moved out of Birmingham. Sad as this was it provided us a fantastic opportunity to redesign our product after 3 years of road testing, we worked closely with Balti Triangle chefs and even gained permission from Birmingham Museum to inspect the original balti bowl on display there. To ensure our new design topped our original and in fact is an even closer replica of that original, taking all the best elements of it and our first design to create the ultimate and only Birmingham designed and made balti bowl. And of course ensuring production truly remained in Birmingham, it's spiritual home!
We have now succeeded in bringing production of the Birmingham Balti bowl back to Birmingham TWICE!
Thousands of bowls later we’ve been both humbled and exhilarated by the enthusiasm and curiosity of curry loving home cooks using our bowls to cook up their own Birmingham Baltis from Texas to Telford, people are enjoying Birmingham Balti, at home, and we couldn’t be prouder.