h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Rather than originating in Brum, I was lead to belive that Balti cooking was the traditional dish of Baltistan (region Kashmir). Now, I am prepared to accept that modern English Balti bears little resemblance to the original Pakistani dish, but there are at least two cookery books that bear this theory out. One even includes a map of the area and a discussion of the likely ingredients originally used.

In Hindi, Balti means a bucket. I don't know which theory is correct but I used to think, balti dish means a dish in a bucket. In India, we have kadhai dishes ( dish in a cauldron) and handi dishes (dish in a vessel) as well.

An article on www.recipeland.com says this:
"The origin of the food would not appear to come from the region of Baltistan or the Balti people who live there; they cook a very different type of Tibetan-influenced food that is based around pasta/noodle dishes. However, Baltistan is a very remote and little-visited mountainous area on the border of Kashmir, and so it is possible that Kashmiris in Britain may have tried to give their newly-invented dish a cover of spurious 'authenticity' - by claiming its origin as being in mysterious Baltistan."

As someone born and brought up in the Midlands, I grew up believing it was something we'd invented.