Wednesday, February 4th - Sushi and Balti

I had vanilla yogurt again with Smart Bran and Kashi meusli.

For lunch I'm going down the road to Granville and Davie. There's this one sushi place that looks like a dive but is really good ...for the price that is. It's called 'Excellent Sushi', for real. It's 5 bucks for 22 pieces. I normally get California, Tuna and Yam. Today I got the Dynamite, Tuna and Yam and for 1.99 more I got the BC Roll too as part of the combo extra options. It comes with Miso soup as well and tea while you wait. They used to be closer to Yaletown and they're busier at lunch than in the evenings when it looks pretty sad. Actually, when there are only about 8 people, in the place, they still tend to get backed up. It's a bit annoying. There was no one in there today. Poor guy, the place is smack dab in the middle of the Granville Street road work. I'd go there more often but it's pretty far from the Robson office. It takes me 25 minutes to walk there and back.

For dinner, we're going to have balti curry. Balti is a form of curry that is traced back to Birmingham England. The curry that most of us eat now is really due colonisation of India and Pakistan. The English demanded sauce. They do like their gravy. Indian food is generally more dry and concentrated so when you see all the loose sauce, that's distinctly English influence. Now, Balti is a great form of curry you don't often see outside England so I was very pleased to find the paste in the place on Commercial Street in the Mexican market. It's of Punjabi style and pakistani expat origin. It was developed by the indian community in Birmingham where Balti houses are all over the place in England and called a such. There you say 'Let's go for a curry.' instead of indian food. Equally, you'd say 'Let's go for a balti.' But most likely in Birmingham cuz Curry houses abound in London. I'll provide a recipie shortly. Korma as well, with the coconut, is a English mutation.

We'll have the curry in two batches too. Mainly, Kale and Cauliflour but I'll add paneer and D will have the chicken from Sunday.

One recipie for the homemade paste might look like this (and this is why most people buy the paste in jars, like thai green curry and add all their own fresh ingredients. Read the labels though. For example, I don't buy Thai Green curry paste if I don't see Lemon Grass. Lots don't have it and go for a flavour substitute which makes it too fake for my taste.)

Balti Paste Ingredients
SPICES
Lovage seed
Onion powder or seed
Coriander seed
Fenugreek leaves
Fenugrees seeds
Cumin seed
Bay/laurel
Cassia bark or cinnamon stick (which is most likely cassia bark if it's in those cute rolled shapes in small spice jars)
Curry leaves
Habaneros
Ground tumeric
Mustard seed
Ground ginger
Fennel seed
Chilli powder
Cardamom
Asafoetida