After a shameful 30 year absence, I finally made a trip to the Khyber Pass in Alum Rock. The very geographical description might conjure up a bleak setting but the welcome at the restaurant allayed any of those fears. The warm wooden decor was how I remember this cosy restaurant and it’s just been given some polishing to know ill effect.

So to the food …. Poppadoms were warm and crispy and accompanied by three dips including mango, tamarind and mint and all were creamy without the watering down that has become common in some restaurants. The starters were an excellently spiced Chicken Tikka which was chunks of chicken breast, red but not in an artificial fluorescent sense. We also had a duo of Meat Samosas which were superb old skool style and not the pretentious cocktail variety that seems to proliferate these days.

The main event was a coconutty and creamy Balti Chicken Korma whilst I pushed the boat out  with a Balti Tropical with Mushroom. Brimful and served up in the traditional sizzling black balti pan, it was excellently spiced without being in the flame thrower category. The lamb was the highlight as the chunks just dissolved on the palate. All mopped up with a fresh and doughy naan.

Definitely worth the trip across Brum Incidentally it’s a BYO and after six there is decent parking on and off the street.

It’s amazing what you can pick up at a car boot sale and perhaps it is fitting that the Madhur Jaffrey’s vintage ‘Balti Serving Set’ was unearthed at one such event recently!  Containing some shiny silver serving dishes it sadly is a complete misrepresentation of the real thing. Am I imaging it but does Madhur’s facial expression display more than a smidgen of embarrassment?

ITV’s ‘This Morning’ featured another episode of Nisha’s ‘curry tour of Great Britain’. Now Nisha Katona is undoubtedly a talented chef but in my brief contribution I made the point that balti was a method of cooking and that a true balti had to be served up in the flat bottomed pressed steel pan (the balti), in which it was cooked…. with all the well researched health and taste benefits which that style of cooking brings. . This point was reinforced by the team at the excellent Royal Watan where she saw one being cooked.   So, it was very disappointing to see Nisha prepare a studio version in a normal pan and serve up in a shiny bowl…sacrilege to the Brummie Balti afficianado who knows his onions!’ So Nisha joins James Martin and a host of other celebrity chefs (Dan Toombs excepted) who don’t seem to know their Balti from a Biryani!

With in house  baltis off the menu I’ve been having weekly takeaways which in some cases haven’t been the best! Chicken Korma and Butter Chicken are two culprits swimming in over creamy and sweet gloopy sauce. So when one of my favourite balti haunts, the Royal Watan, told me they were introducing several dishes to honour their grandmother, I had to give one a go. I took the risk of ordering a Balti Butter Chicken and how glad I am that I did. Yes. it was wonderfully buttery but was well spiced with just a modest portion of cream which didn’t over power the dish … a fine example of the more subtle cooking from the north west of the Indian subcontinent.

Arguably, the most influential food magazine ‘Vittles’ recently published a piece on the ‘Rise and Fall of the British Curry House‘ by Sri Lankan Brummie Thuli Weerasena. Whilst critical of  politicians in the past like Robin Cook trying to ‘curry favour’ with multi culturals by lauding dishes like chicken tikka masala and also being critical of the many overpriced ‘street food’ joints springing up, Thuli gives the Brummie dish a good press. Well worth reading.

All things Brummie came together in the recently aired Sky Arts documentary about talented Brummie based band ‘The Nightingales‘. Parallels were drawn with the sustaining spectre (if unfortunately not the actual statue) of King Kong and the massively talented and surviving punk influenced band the Nightingales. This was all topped off by their talented singer and songwriter Robert Lloyd being interviewed at Abduls in Hall Green aka Saleems Baltihouse … Abduls incidentally serving the best samosas this side of Pakistan!

There are a number of ecellent websites set up for curry lovers and one  is the website for the Royal Curry Club. So, I was pleased to clarify some facts on the Birmingham Balti in a virtual interview …

There doesn’t appear to be any end in sight for restaurants of all shapes, sizes and cooking styles so where does that leave balti? Well, as small independents, they will need a firm steer and guidelines on COVID safe measures when they reopen and not the typical half soaked Bojo advisory approach, otherwise this won’t give a tentative customer any confidence in sitting down for a meal.

However, on the plus side, their major advantage in securing culinary survival was brought home to me when I had a proper balti served up sizzling to me in a restaurant … brimful of fresh ginger, garlic and spices. I hasten to add that this was a working visit due to my being interviewed by a newsreel crew about balti. It was my first proper balti for many weeks and no takeaway could compare … indeed it was a bit like comparing watching a live football match with all its attendant theatre and excitement with watching some recorded highlights on the TV in my lounge. Hopefully this is what makes genuine balti houses a more than decent safe bet to survive amongst the myriad of closures likely in the not too distant future. ‘

The Birmingham Mail recently published a list  of ‘top’ Brum curry restaurants based on ‘readers recommendations’. Not sure how this was publicised but I couldn’t see one genuine Balti House, nor any ‘desi’ pubs and not even arguably the City’s top Indian restaurant, the Jewellery Quarter’s Opheems. That’s not to say that the restaurants listed (mainly standard Bangladeshi curry houses) aren’t good ones but the omissions seem strange and perhaps show that ‘reader’ surveys and polls can miss the mark.