I recently blogged about an innovative beer brought out by Crumbs Brewery made from discarded naans.

Pleased to hear that they scooped a silver at the London Beer Awards. Let’s hope, it will be available at Brum offies soon … to wash down that Balti!

I went to a world music event at the Old Print Works in the Balti Triangle. Billed as Musikstan, the musicians from Mali and India were outstanding.

Food on offer included an excellent parsnip and coconut curry.  As I tucked into mine I got chatting to a woman probably in her thirties who seemed fairly well read/ clued in and lived locally.

To my dismay as we discussed food, she hadn’t a clue what an authentic Balti was. Needless to say she does now and has promised to give Shababs a whirl.

All part of the Balti Awareness programme!!

I recently got hold of a lager beer from Crumbs Brewery. Uniquely it’s made with surplus wonky naan breads so sounded like an ideal brew to wash down a Balti.

So it proved as it was beautifully smooth and flavoursome and yes the flavour of the naan came subtly through … probably more Peshwari than Garlic!

Yet another example of an Indian chef not knowing a balti from a banana.

In this case the you tubing chef was a Gurdip Loyal launching his book “Mother Tongue’ and cooking a supposed Balti Chola. Predictably it was a standard chick pea curry bunged into a couple of shiny bowls. When will they ever learn! …

Looking back, here are my top ten Balti houses in the Balti Triangle of which seven are now sadly long gone. Those still going are asterisked:

1. Royal Naim, Stratford Road,

2. Punjab Paradise, Ladypool Road,

3. Shababs, Ladypool Road*

4. Shahi Nan, Stratford Road*,

5. Sher Khan, Stratford Road,

6. Grand Tandoori, Stratford Road,

7. Popular Balti, Ladypool Road*,

8. Hajii Baba, Stratford Road,

9. Adils, Stoney Lane,

10. I Am The King, Ladypool Road.

With the apparent return of Basil Fawlty, I thought a reprise of a review of the black country’s BaltiTowers from my twenty year plus Essential Street Balti Guide might be appropriate …

‘On my visit, Basil must have been on holiday as the restaurant had a calm laid-back atmosphere. No free dips but one was served on a plate with my Chicken Shashlik. My partner’s excellent Mushroom Bhaji had been freshly cooked not microwaved.

Baltis were served up in shiny bowls but we were told that they had been cooked in them and my Balti Chicken was full of large breast pieces in a dryish but tasty sauce. The Lamb Balti was equally tender and fresh naans mopped everything up. Perhaps the only disappointment was a lack of Basil Fawlty memorabilia which might have given a touch of authenticity whilst stopping short of the manager hitting the waiters over the head with the balti bowls!

One wonders if things are still the same …

Just been to the Shahi Nan for one of their stellar Baltis. Packed out on a Sunday afternoon I opted for a balti chicken and mushroom with a garlicky nan bread.

As usual superbly well balanced spices but not often talked about was the quality of chicken which was second to none.

Nobody will need to wash that balti bowl!!

A recent piece on regional TV evening news was highlighting the plight of ‘Indian’ restaurants badly affected by rising costs. Typically, the introductory lead in was on the back of the term ‘Balti’. True to form this was followed by shots of frying pans, shiny serving dishes and some psychedelic colouring. Bangladeshi it might have been but Balti it was not!

Sad to hear about the passing Ali Aslam, owner of Glaswegian restaurant Shish Mahal and creator of the iconic Chicken Tikka Masala.

It is interesting to note that Ali’s roots were in Pakistan as were the Birmingham creator of the equally iconic Balti, Mohammed Arif, owner of Adil.

So much for ‘Going for an Indian ‘!

I was recently asked about whether I knew of any genuine Balti restaurants in London.

As none sprung to mind I decided to do some research so after googling ‘Balti’ and ‘Brick Lane’ (the supposed epicentre of the  London curry scene) I phoned a restaurant in Brick Lane called the ‘Eastern  Eye  Balti House‘. On questioning them, they said they served Balti but when they described it, it was obviously just a standard curry masquerading as a Balti!

I then phoned the Bangladeshi Catering Association (the National organisation based in the Brick Lane area) and when I described the authentic article, the retort was ‘ nobody does it that way’. 

All disappointing but in its own way illuminating!