Balti, balti, balti

For some time I have been insisting to the Merovingian and the Carolingian that they ought to take me for a balti when I visit them. A couple of years ago we did go to a decent place called, I think, Shere Khan's on the Stratford Road, but I really wanted to head to the heart of Birmingham's balti district on Ladypool Road: the famous Balti Triangle. Now I know that some would say that this is in fact the heart of balti cooking worldwide - given this idea that the balti originated in Brum - but realistically 'balti' is no more than Indian wok-cooking, often known as 'kadahi' or 'karahi'. Such cooking happens to be amongst my favourite styles of Indian food, so I was delighted when my hosts agreed to my suggestion of visiting Plaza, which I had heard was a rough-and-ready place that was one of the best baltis on offer. Like many such places its BYOB and I was well impressed by the Sikhs on the next table who were knocking back a bottle of whiskey with their balti! We stuck to beer and wine, and then began with some OK poppadums and then some really excellent pakora and onion bhaji. My paneer and vegetable pakora were just sinful in the best possible way: crispy on the outside, and then packed full ofboth paneer and very spicy vegetables, soothingly cooled when dipped in raita. As a main I went for a tarka daal balti. This was one of the best tarka daals I've ever had: pretty dry, with really deep, complex, hot spicing, and a pleasing crunchiness to the lentils. They seemed pretty pleased with their chicken dishes and the onion paratha was also a real treat. Whereas other parathas I've had contained onion in the middle, this one was covered with a layer of onion, spring onion and (much) coriander: not for the faint-hearted, but a perfect complement to my balti. Plaza is most definitely now my restaurant of choice in Bimingham - let's hope the others agree.