Quote from: George on August 28, 2022, 08:47 PM
The best recipes by far are those I have worked out for myself and even techniques I have worked out for myself but decline to write up here or anywhere.

Do you not feel that to be a little one-sided, George ?  You are happy to try others' recipes which are freely published here yet decline to publish your own ?  Not the sort of attitude I would have expected from one of our most senior members ...  Oh, and I should add that I purchase a 300gm pack of cassia bark (wrongly labelled "Cinnamon") specifically to try my hand at making this much-lauded balti ...
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** Phil.

Well done SP.  I am afraid that my memories of trying to cook a genuine BIR curry for my girl-friend (then resident in Smethwick, but we had eaten in BIRs in Birmingham many times) are nowhere near as satisfying or a good as yours.  Suffice to say I had no idea how to cook a BIR-style curry, tried winging it, but the results were a complete and utter disaster.  Not unlike my efforts at cooking the same girl-friend Greek kleftiko.  But at least I managed to impress the proprietor of a Bengali-speaking shop owner when trying to buy lentils — he had no idea what "lentils" were, I had no idea what lentils were called in Bengali, but somehow I managed to drag up "dal" from somewhere, he suddenly had a great big beaming smile on his face, and all of a sudden there were more varieties of lentils than I even knew existed all over the floor of his shop for me to indicate the ones that I wanted !

Quote from: stevepaul on August 24, 2022, 10:12 AM
f cooking oil gets too expensive I'll start using Shell V Power, or perhaps red diesel if I can get my hands on it. Then as a last resort used engine oil.

See you at your funeral, Steve (interment, not cremation — your corpse would set the whole place on fire) — it was good knowing you !
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** Phil.

Pho is a chain of Vietnamese restaurants started by a British couple, Stephen and Juliette Wall, after they visited Vietnam and fell in love with the cuisine.  A branch has now opened sufficiently close to the hotel for my wife to try their food, and she brought me back a portion of their chicken curry for me to try.  As most of you know, my wife is Vietnamese by birth, and cooks Vietnamese curries professionally for her hotel, and she felt that the Pho version lacked authenticity, being (to her palate) more like an Indian curry.  I tried my portion this evening, and for me it was nothing like an Indian curry, but being familiar with her Vietnamese curries I can also see why she feels that the Pho version lacks authenticity.  So, I would be interested to know if any CR0 member has visited any of the Pho branches, and if so, what their impressions were.  Incidentally, there was nothing wrong with the curry, and although I added some chilli pickle it would have been quite edible without — it just wasn't a Vietnamese curry, any more than it was Indian.
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** Phil.

Or maybe this one, from Chef Syed, although I don't think that it had previously been mentioned on this forum ...
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** Phil.

Well, someone (presumably Santa) must know which the "balti from scratch" recipe is, so it would be nice if he were to post a link.  I've tried twice, and seemingly been wrong twice, but "you're wrong." is nowhere near as helpful as "you're wrong, the correct link is ...".
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** Phil.

So "The Holy Grail - Birmingham Balti Quest Completed", presumably.
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** Phil.

Probably "++++MDB's Birmingham Balti Gravy 100% Clone Al Frash Balti Restaurant ++++", George.
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** Phil.

Those are what I would expect, Livo, and they are what I have purchased in the past.  Unfortunately I am in the office today, so can't say what is on the label, but I would be extremely surprised if they were not Ceylonese Cinnamomum verum.
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** Phil.

These are what I would expect when I purchase cinnamon quills, Livo —

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** Phil.