Birmingham balti bites back over 'balti fraud'

Stand aside protected pork pies, pasties and the plonk with the fizz - Birmingham's balti wants a slice of the action.

Its purveyors are seeking government help - under a Unesco-backed scheme - to safeguard the authenticity of the Second City's specialty curry style, which takes its name from the metal dish used to make it.

According to the restaurants behind the bid, a balti is only a balti when it has been cooked in the same metal dish in which it is served.

Zaf Hussain, who owns restaurant Shababs in Birmingham's so-called Balti Triangle, argues that by preserving the genuine article, the meal will avoid dilution by flawed imitation, and thwart what he dubbed "balti fraud".

He said many curry houses selling baltis were cooking in a different pan and transferring it into a "shiny lookalike" dish, undermining the criteria that should afford a curry the balti title.

"[The balti's] roots are in Birmingham and in the early 90s, restaurants around the country wanted to jump on to the Balti bandwagon and started introducing it on their menus, which is fine if it's done properly, but it wasn't," the restaurateur said.

With these issues in mind, eight restaurants in Birmingham have applied for the balti to be enshrined under the Department for Culture, Media and Sport's Trail of Cultural Heritage scheme.

According to the movement's website "there is real hope" that in doing so, "Birmingham's famous dish will achieve recognition", and restaurants serving the real mccoy "will be badged accordingly".

The plan is akin, in theory, to the sort of safeguards afforded to the Melton Mowbray pork pie, although there the crust-wrapped meat snack operates under a different protection mechanism, and has a stiff legal threshold underpinning sales and branding.

But how does the naan-dipping, Brummie staple taste?

The answer is somewhat elusive.

Andy Monroe, an expert on the curry and author of "The Balti" said: "I'm not being anti London here, but jellied eels and pie and mash pale into insignificance with the Birmingham balti.

"I want [it] preserved - it's a Brummie thing."

He said the aim of the submission to government was "to safeguard the city's long association with the curry style, and ensure genuine restaurants are formally recognised".

A decision is expected to take about six months to come through.

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