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The British Embassy will be hosting the BBBF Great British Balti Curry Night this evening in the Embassy Gardens. The British editor of this fine organ has oft had to explain to his bemused Keralite deputy that British/Indian fare is far superior to the curry he eats at home.
Legend has it that the dish originated in Birmingham during the late 1970s when Bangladeshi curry chefs made meals from leftover ingredients for their restaurant teams at the end of the evening.
Late-night British revellers spotted them eating the meals and demanded to be served the same, thinking that the waiters were getting something special and off-menu. As a result the chefs also started to make these dishes lighter, healthier and served faster to suit Western tastes.
A true Birmingham chicken or lamb and vegetable Balti must be served in the same thin steel bowl it is cooked in over a hot flame, as it is this bowl that gives the dish its name.
“Let’s hope the Balti sauce is rightly wiped up with a proper Peshwari Naan,” said Stan. It’s a soft and fruity British/Indian coconut-flavoured flat-bread, unheard of in Bahrain, with questionable links to Pakistan and Iran, which Gopal claims is a dessert in any case.
