balti in houston?

February 15, 2008 6:18 PM

i'm trying to find some balti in houston, texas. i went to a balti house in birmingham, england a few years ago and loved the stuff. google, citysearch, and yelp are all failing me. thanks for any suggestions.
posted by ncc1701d to food & drink (6 comments total)

I know there's a fairly large Chinese population in Houston and Tibet is part of China at the moment. Maybe ask some Chinese people, particularly Hui / Chinese Muslims? Here's http://www.houstonchinatown.com/.
posted by XMLicious at 6:50 PM on February 15, 2008

Err, XMLicious:

"The name Balti food has nothing to do with an ethnic group living in India and Pakistan who are also called Balti. These Balti people are Tibetan Muslims. The food 'Balti' is named after the pot in which it is cooked. Balti food is a Punjabi recipe and prepared mainly in the Punjabi way." — Wikipedia
posted by mumkin at 7:07 PM on February 15, 2008

Also, ncc1701d:

Nirvana Indian Restaurant sounds to be exactly what you're looking for.

The Red Lion Pub does balti dishes on Wednesdays (see comments).

Lazeeza's menu has Balti Gosht and Balti Aloo on it, but it looks likely to be a more traditional restaurant, and not the Anglicized fusion type you're probably wanting.

The above are courtesy of Google, mind, not personal recommendations (though next time I'm in Houston I might have to visit Nirvana).
posted by mumkin at 7:20 PM on February 15, 2008

Oops, I guess I read the Wikipedia article too fast.
posted by XMLicious at 7:24 PM on February 15, 2008

your google-fu is most impressive, mumkin-san. thanks.
posted by ncc1701d at 7:41 PM on February 15, 2008

Sure thing, ncc1701d. If none of those turn out to be what you're craving, you can easily roll-yer-own balti. I dug around the back of my bookshelves and unearthed a cookbook I hadn't used in years: Vegetarian Balti Cooking, by Mridula Baljekar, whom I gather is something of a celebrity chef in Britain. I cooked her Balti Mixed Vegetables for dinner the other night and it was damned tasty if I do say so. Paging through, she attributes many of her recipes to British Balti houses, so one has the impression that it's a pretty authentic sourcebook. All the recipes seem fairly fast—on the order of an hour tops from start-of-prep to serving—so it's more practical than most of the "exotic" cookbooks I have. Of course, it probably helps that it's vegetarian. There's an omnivorous version as well if that's more your speed: Mridula Baljekar's Real Balti Cookbook.
posted by mumkin at 12:17 PM on February 22, 2008