Well known Brum artist Andy Slater recently did a brilliant take on designing flags for different districts of the city. Great idea and good to see the one for Sparkbrook featuring a balti bowl in a triangle. If I had a grouse I would make the colours more Pakistani than Brazilian but it would be good to see Andy’s ideas taken up bringing a bit of real colour to the City’s scene!

I made a trip to Stirchley’s Balti Bazaar and it was a more than decent meal with one dish presented like  it had been cooked by the winner of Master Chef! Friendly service brought some excellent dips and crispy paid for poppadoms. Starters were a tender chicken tikka and a meat samosa … the latter full of spicy mince although the pastry casing wasn’t Great British Bake Off material. My Bazaar Special Balti was an excellent mixture of chicken, mushrooms, egg and aubergine … with the latter richly disintegrating into a tasty sauce far better than being served sliced and al dente, as often mistakenly happens with the purple prince of vegetables. However, the highlight was a Balti Chicken Korma which undoubtedly had the touch of balti nouveau cuisine … perhaps the start of a new trend!