Food and Drink: The globe-trotter for pigs’ trotters
AS TV exposure goes, having your restaurant showcased to 59 million viewers takes some beating.
There’s only one small hitch for Birmingham’s Asian eateries: if anyone watching the programme fancies trying some of the dishes, they will have to catch a plane and fly 4,000 miles.
Zaika India Ka, or A Taste of India, is a top-rating show on New Delhi TV, which has a huge audience only slightly shy of the total population of the UK.
It is hosted by Indian broadcasting veteran Vinod Dua, who was so impressed by Birmingham’s curry scene that two prime-time episodes of the culinary show, which specialises in street food, will be dedicated to the city this autumn.
Dua and his production team, who were hosted by Visitbirmingham.com, examined the evolution of Indian cuisine in the city, tasting the cooking at a range of Asian restaurants including Asha’s, Pushkar and Lasan in the city centre and Imrans, Mushtaq, Chennai Dosa and vegetarian specialist Jyoti.
Chefs and restaurant managers were interviewed about their own stories and styles of cooking and the film crew went on a series of walkabouts to get a picture of the local Indian community, assisted by Handsworth recording star Apache Indian.
First impressions count and Dua, who is usually seen sampling food in great Indian cities such as Mumbai and Amritsar, said he was a big fan of Birmingham, which he described as a “very pleasant city”.
“I like the greenery, the friendliness of the people, and that it doesn’t have the traffic congestion problems of London. The city has a real sense of pride in itself.
‘‘You can be who you want to be,” said Dua. The presenter was keen to try Birmingham’s melting pot of Asian cuisine and looked at the similarities and differences between the Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi food served in Birmingham and the dishes he is accustomed to in India.
Dua said: “The basic concept remains the same, but the style of cooking and the volume of spices are distinctly different. Much less spice is used here in Birmingham in comparison to at home.
