Curry is one of the most popular takeaway meals in Britain, and most people can admit to visiting a curry house commercial property on occasion to indulge in the spicy treat. Now, it is revealed that curry houses in Birmingham want their signature dish to be given protected EU status.
The “Birmingham Balti” dish stretches back to the 1970s when Kashmiri immigrants in the Birmingham area sought a way to put their commercial property restaurants on the map by creating a unique flavour to entice customers. “Balti” comes from the Urdu and Hindi word “balty”, meaning bucket. This is because the Birmingham Balti is both cooked and served in a steel or iron pot in the traditional Balti houses of Birmingham.
The bid comes from the Birmingham Balti Association, who wish to make the delicious dish a Traditional Speciality Guaranteed product (TSG) under EU regulations. This would mean that only commercial property restaurants which follow a specific recipe would be allowed to market their meal as Birmingham Balti.
They believe that this would also have a positive effect for the traditional balti houses in areas such as Sparkhill, Sparkbrook, Moseley and Balsall Heath. This area is often known as the “Balti Triangle” due to the high number of commercial properties offering the curry located there. Some of the oldest Balti commercial properties in the city are also located here, making the area something of a specialist in terms of Indian food.
EU-protected food names manager at Adas, Irene Bocchetta, says; “People know the Balti is from Birmingham – it is a reputation that has been built up over the years.”
This, she claims, could be a sticking point in the Birmingham Balti Association’s application for protected status, as place names are rarely included in a TSG submission. However, the status would apply to the recipe, rather than the location – so long as a specific recipe was followed, using fresh spices and vegetable oil, curry house commercial properties from Land’s End to John O’Groats would be free to advertise their dishes as Birmingham Balti.
Should the application be successful, the dish will join 48 other food types and commercial property recipes that have some sort of EU protected status. Other TSG products from the UK include Traditional Pasture Raised beef and Bramley Apple Pie Filling.
If no objections are raised about the bid for Birmingham Balti, it will then go before Defra who will make the final decision about passing it forward to the European Commission. Currently, a 12 week consultation on the TSG bid is underway, which will allow anyone with an interest in the bid, including commercial property curry houses, to pass on their support or objections to Adas – the company which is responsible for the first stage of applications.
Should the bid be successful, and protected status be given to Birmingham Balti, the British curry industry and commercial properties associated with it could benefit greatly. Connoisseurs often claim that it is impossible to get a “proper Balti” outside the West Midlands city, and unsurprisingly, this has led to the British curry market being valued in the area of £4 billion annually.
Have you ever had the “Birmingham Balti” from your local commercial property Indian restaurant? Do you believe that gaining TSG protected status will benefit the curry houses in the “Balti Triangle” of Birmingham?
