Have our baltis gone off the boil?
Does Britain really know what a proper Indian meal is all about?
Do you remember the hilarious “going for an English” sketch from ‘Goodness Gracious Me’, the nineties/early noughties sketch show starring Meera Syal?
The cast parodied the grand old British tradition of going for an Indian after a few beers, ordering plates of chips alongside the blandest items on the menu, getting the waiter’s name wrong and generally behaving appallingly.
The implication – and it wasn’t a subtle one – was that white British people know nothing about Indian food or eating: not how to order, nor when to eat, never mind how to treat the staff.
Britain’s baltis are off the boil
Unfortunately, according to the award-winning chef Aktar Islam, this culture still prevails. A fine cuisine, on this small island, has degenerated into sloppy, greasy, identikit curry-based meals served up and down the country under the banner of Indian food.
Islam’s restaurant Lasan in Birmingham was named Best Local Restaurant on Gordon Ramsay’s The F Word in 2010, and he made it into the final of Great British Menu – the first chef of ethnic origin to do so – cooking the fish course.
“Why do so many owners of Indian restaurants turn a unique culinary heritage into a bastardised abomination?” he asked in an interview with The Daily Mail.
He speaks from experience. His own parents, who are actually from Bangladesh, ran an “Indian” restaurant in Solihull serving up standard kormas, baltis and tikka masalas to drunken Brits.
Islam stepped in to change things, after training at an Italian, and reports enthusiasm for his introduction of good quality ingredients and authentic recipes, principles he then carried over to his own restaurant.
How it should be done
In other words, where good Indian is on offer, the ignorant Brits are entranced. The menu at Lasan is a case in point.
How about Goan Lemon Sole Kafrial, which is marinated in yoghurt and mint and served with tomato and cucumber salad with a mint and coriander dressing, followed by Hiran Achari, roasted venison loin in a chilli, cumin and coriander marinade served with spiced butternut squash and caramelised onion and cashew gravy? Only a heathen – or perhaps a drunk - would prefer a chicken balti, surely?
This is why Islam rails against the shameful examples of Indian food being served in restaurants with, in his words, “cheap carpet, cheap furniture and a gloopy curry sauce on every dish.” If we get a taste of the good stuff, he believes, we won’t look back.
I don’t agree. I’ve had the finest French cuisine but I’ll still make room for a croque monsieur at the right moment. Who can afford the best food all the time? Who has the stomach for it? Islam’s venison dish is 23 quid – fine for a special occasion, but not a standard supper.
There are rubbish restaurants of every type
What’s more, it’s no wonder there’s a slew of sub-standard Indians in the UK. There is a slew of sub-standard restaurants of every type, be it Indian, Thai, Italian, British or classic boozer grub.
The fact remains that there are so many Indian restaurants in this country because we love Indian food. As a cuisine, it has been integrated into our restaurant-going habits, which is a good thing.
It is a shame that so many people only experience the lousy end of Indian cooking, but places that serve up feasts for under a tenner in the early hours are operating like late night kebab shops, so why expect anything more from them?
Posh Indian
Elsewhere there are wonderful Indian restaurants serving good quality and very varied food. Vivek Singh at The Cinnamon Club in Westminster has long been appreciated as a top notch Indian. However, this is in a particularly affluent spot, and is loved by politicians and their expense accounts.
On one count I certainly agree with Islam. He points out that when he puts expensive dishes on his menu, such as a £21 monkfish, customers are uneasy about high prices in an Indian restaurant, even though they’d be happy to pay that for a different cuisine – the rash of cheap as chips curry houses has made us think we are being ripped off if Indian food is ever expensive.
If food is good, whatever its origin, you have to pay for it.
Luckily, you don’t have to splash out to eat well. Take the Rasa chain, which does south Indian so well you might sit back and dream you’re on a houseboat in Kerala being served the real deal.
Or Salaam Namaste, which brings together favourite dishes from different regions (though I should warn you, the Camden branch served a dish containing peanuts when we’d asked specifically about nut traces).
The east London Pakistani Tayyabs is a consistent cheap eats favourite.
Since his interview, which ran under the headline “Ban the balti!”, Islam has made it clear he doesn’t want to ban this beloved dish, just make it better. I’m behind him, but I don’t think poor restaurants can wholly ruin a cuisine’s reputation – just motivate the decent chefs to do even better.
Also worth your attention:
Recipes from Aktar Islam
Recipes from Vivek Singh
Recipes from Anjum Anand
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