Another visit to my mate in Birmingham, and this time we ate at his local favourite curry house, not in the Balti triangle, but in an area with plenty of similar choice. I looked at the menu, and thought that it was so much less expensive than London, that it became cost neutral to buy a cheap train ticket to Birmingham and have a curry there, but you have to have the time.
The restaurant, which is up a narrow flight of stairs has a modern air and has a useful web site at http://www.mela-harborne.co.uk/ . Note the pictures of the somewhat thick based chairs on the bottom left of their home page. These were newish chairs and the funny thing was that they were too high for the tables. I swapped mine for one of the more conventional chairs. Then menu which can be found on the web pages is a mix of classic and not so classic dishes.
Breaking a pattern of a lifetime, I had the Nargis Kebab as a starter. This is 'traditional minced lamb wrapped around a boiled egg (sounds a bit like a Scotch Egg) served with an omelette and fresh salad.
Which when cut open look like
For main course I had Chicken Shashlick buhna balti which is diced chicken cooked with olive oil, garlic, ginger and home-made shashlick sauce with diced bell peppers and onions in a medium sauce served in a traditional balti dish served with pulau rice
This dish was fine, but a big heavy on the onions, and was kept hot on the hot plates that you can just see the edge of in the background.
I would recommend this restaurant, and the prices are very fair. My friend had the modu lamb, which he spoke highly of, and I might try next time.
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