Local traditions and culture in Birmingham

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Balti in Europe started attracting notice over the last few years in Birmingham.

The Balti is an Indian dish representative of a style of cooking which some say is native to Baltistan. It's a kind of curry, its ingredients usually assembled and cooked quickly in a manner reminiscent of a stir-fry.

The heart of this style of cooking is a cast-iron pot, originally also called the balti. The balti evolved into a half-hemispherical pot as likely to be made of steel as iron, and usually called the karahi or karai. A Balti is usually both cooked in the karahi, and served at the table in it. Typically served with Balti is naan bread, a thinnish leavened bread (somewhat like pita bread) torn up and used as an eating implement, to scoop up the Balti and get at the sauce.

Overall Balti is a very tasty dish and i would definetly recommend you give it a try if you havent already. It is extremely popular with the Indian Community over Birmingham aswell as English residents too. Plus eating out an Indian takeaway is not expensive so give it a try or you could even try a packet of Mc Coys Balti flavoured crisps which go down well with a glass of Beer!

While somewhat more understandable than a lot of dialects in the UK (well, sometimes, anyway) there are certain quirks that we brummies have when we speak.
Brummie - Queen's English
"You alright bab?" - Hello, how are you?
"I'm going to town" - I am going into the city centre.
"Pop" - fizzy soft drink (e.g. coke)
"Bostin" - very good
"buzz" - bus

There are more and I'll add them as I notice them! :)

A true Brummie accent can be very strong and difficult to understand, some people wil also shorten their words, and even use slang words quite a lot. Even I can not understand some people, and I have lived in this area for quite a while.The black country accent is even worse!

Don't worry about what you wear too much as many people aren't very conservative. Also in England people aren't very warm although some are a handshake os offen enough.