Birmingham - the latest hot destination for foodies

It is 2am on a Sunday in November 1989. This writer and three other students at Birmingham University take up a promise from Imran's Balti house in Sparkbrook to deliver "any time of day or night". The voice at the end of the telephone is sleepy but polite. The cost for four baltis with naans and rice, quickly and uncomplainingly delivered, is just £7. For years after I wondered just what was in it for Imran - why on earth get out of bed for less than a tenner to feed some scruffy students?

Fast forward to 2006 and the answer has become obvious. Far from being a convenient late-night feeding station for students, these restaurants now enjoy a collective turnover of £7m a year and are reaching out into the tourist trade. Thanks to hard work and an eye for a marketing opportunity, Imran's is now a flagship restaurant in one of Britain's more unlikely tourist destinations: Birmingham's Balti Triangle. The local curry industry, together with Birmingham's tourist office, has launched a series of "Balti Breaks" for 2006. The Essential Guide to the Balti Triangle has gone into a third print run of 40,000 copies.

The Balti Triangle is based around the southern suburbs of Sparkbrook, Moseley and Balsall Heath, and at its heart is Ladypool Road, essentially a narrow high street featuring green and gold arches and lampposts, where you find the greatest concentration of curry houses. These range from the smart to take-away cafés. In all, there are more than 50 balti houses within walking distance of one another.

The notion of the Balti Triangle took hold in the 1990s when regeneration agencies realised that these hidden gems could be used as a tool with which to transform one of the city's less salubrious areas. The Triangle has since gained a life of its own, attracting thousands of customers every week. It is vital to the area in terms of employment and the use of local suppliers.

The Balti Triangle has become a tourist attraction in its own right, and is helping to shift Birmingham's dour image from the 1980s, when Spaghetti Junction was pretty much the only reference to food the city could hope for. The pocket-sized Essential Guide lists more than 30 curry houses, but it also encourages you to buy into the phenomenon of the balti and its attendant culture. It recommends shops where you can buy exotic spices and vegetables, such as Rajah Brothers on Ladypool Road. Some vegetables there may be new to even the most passionate "balti-phile": in addition to relative rarities, such as prickly pears and custard apples, you can buy eddoe, a knobbly taro-like vegetable, and karela, a bitter gourd that resembles a cucumber covered in Astroturf. The guide lists silk shops, shoe shops, hardware stores where you can buy your own balti dishes, and sweetshops such as Mushtaq's on Stratford Road that sell Kohya Barfi, a fudge-like sweet made with buffalo milk.

The balti breaks involve a local guide who will walk you around the textile shops and sweet centres, and talk about the history of the area. You then visit a greengrocer's where, to enter into the spirit of things, you pick out a vegetable you've never seen before, which will be used in your evening meal. At that meal, you will be given a brief cookery class in the heat of a balti kitchen and take part in a curry quiz.

Birmingham is the birthplace of the British balti, thanks to the city's Kashmiri and Pakistani communities, who introduced it in the mid-1970s. But the origin of the dish is less clear. It may - or may not - have originated in the Pakistani province of Baltistan, where it was favoured by a mountain tribe (the Baltis), who used distinctive flat-bottomed woks to cook food quickly in the thin air of high altitudes, and possibly used them as helmets in battle.

A balti dish is easier to identify. Cooked over a high flame, the dish is typically served with a naan. (The biggest naans you are likely to see outside Guinness World Records are served at the Royal Al Faisal in Sparkbrook, where the chef knocks out the "karek", or giant family-sized naan.) "The balti is about the style of the cooking rather than the ingredients," said Andy Munro, author of the Essential Guide, as we sat in the Royal Naim on Stratford Road, our chicken and mushroom balti sizzling in the kitchen. "It's about using vegetable oil, tossing all the ingredients together and cooking it over a high flame. The integrity of the spices is important but it's basic, wholesome food with no airs and graces. I must have eaten thousands of baltis and never had a stomach upset."

The Royal Naim is among Birmingham's best-regarded balti houses, yet even here there is a complete absence of pretension and the menus are located under glass-topped tables. However, even though baltis are designed to be informal, there is a degree of balti protocol to be observed. I quietly dropped my plan to order rice when Andy was dismissive of anything other than naan bread. Ghee is out too. Using fingers, not cutlery, is a way of distinguishing the novice from the veteran. As a civil servant, Andy once took Michael Heseltine for a balti, upon which the former Cabinet minister was taken aback when Andy leant over and tore a strip off a naan bread - in balti land all breads are communal.

The balti is, Andy points out, an authentic experience. "We've all had the Bangladeshi, flocked-wallpaper experience, how-hot-can-you-make your curry, served with an ice-cold lager," he said. "The balti just isn't like that. Eating a real balti in a balti house is like watching a football match live rather than watching it on television. And it's a great way to learn about the culture."

Hazrat Islam of the Asian Balti Restaurant Association, which has more than 60 members, had a similar message. "The balti is crucial because it is authentic," he said. "Without it this would be a dead town. But it's not just the balti that attracts people here. There are all kinds of shops and we get people from all over Europe who are keen to learn about the balti concept. The restaurants are really buzzing at the weekends, even though many are next to one another. It's made the area much more vibrant. People are very proud."

The writer travelled to Birmingham courtesy of Virgin Trains (08457 222333; virgintrains.co.uk). Balti Break packages are available on 22 April, 10 June, 12 August, 14 October and 9 December. A one-day package costs £40 per person or overnight b&b costs £62 per person, based on two sharing. For more details visit www.birminghambites.com or call 0870- 225 0127. Copies of the free 'Essential Guide to the Balti Triangle' can be obtained from Birmingham's tourist offices or by calling Marketing Birmingham on 0121-202 5115 ( or visit their website on www.beinbirmingham.com). The Asian Balti Restaurant Association (0121-449 9288; www.balti-birmingham.co.uk) is a useful source of information

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