The Significance of Balti Triangle

Balti Triangle

Written By: Anika Akthar

01/10/21

Located in Britain’s Second City, you can find an array of Indian restaurants and cafés situated along Ladypool Road, Stoney Lane, and Stratford Road. These roads in the south of the city center are iconic for showcasing the wide diversity that Birmingham holds. It’s not just the delicious scent of curries blending into one another that might bring you to them. The beautiful clothes hailing from various parts of South Asia alongside lots of oriental supermarkets brandishing fruits of all flavor invite many people to these busy roads. Alongside the South Asian cuisines, the Triangle is teeming with various other restaurants from Moroccan, Turkish, and even Korean, creating a huge culture burst.

So, what exactly is a Balti? You may see the word etched on a menu in an Indian restaurant. The word balti means bucket which also refer to the cooking process. When ordering a balti at a restaurant, your dish will be cooked quickly over high heat, unlike a curry where it is traditionally cooked on a slow simmer. In many places, your piping hot dish of choice will also be served in the pot it was cooked in.

The rise in popularity of the balti houses in the 80s and 90s created a surge in them opening around Britain. This growth developed the new balti mile, similar to the triangle but instead a long line of restaurants dotted throughout west Birmingham. A restaurant named Adil’s claims to be the original, having served the dish from the late 1970s in Stoney Lane.

The Balti Triangle has played a significant role in the British curry industry which is worth around £5 billion.

Many restaurants have come and gone within this small cluster of curry houses and with that comes the adaptation of the dish from fusions to fancy ingredients. Each restaurant has its own individual way of making their balti. Despite the many differences, the balti has managed to retain its popularity, especially as it is a dish that caters to all palates.

This dish has had such a major influence over the British food industry from professional chefs implementing it into their cookbooks to entire businesses being created around readymade balti ‘sauce’. It’s become a staple in many takeaway orders and has even reached the heights of the infamous chicken tikka masala. There is no doubt about it that the balti is as British as fish and chips.

The Birmingham Balti as it is known to many has had such a significant impact throughout the UK and its ever-growing curry industry. This little dish has undergone a campaign in a bid to gain EU protected status (much like the Cornish Pasty) but was unfortunately rejected. A bitter taste was left in many mouths, especially as the campaign’s success would have meant the word ‘Birmingham Balti’ gaining protected status, meaning that places outside of Birmingham would not have been able to use these words in their menus or products. Though this would not have protected the word ‘balti’.

However, since Birmingham is often considered to be where the balti houses were born, perhaps this sizzling dish doesn’t really need protected status. The cultural hub of the Triangle has made sure to keep it that way in all these years.