the dish known as balti was invented in birmingham in the 1970s in restaurants owned by members of the pakistani community in sparkbrook, many of whom had migrated to the city from the mirpur area of pakistan in the 1960s. when non-pakistani customers began to visit their restaurants, they required curries to be cooked more quickly than occurred in traditional mirpuri cuisine and the restaurateurs consequently developed dishes in which meat was cooked off the bone at higher temperatures in steel dishes with fresh dried spices rather than curry pastes and vegetable oil in place of the traditional ghee. the steel dishes in which the food was cooked were called "baltis" (said to derive from the hindi word "balty" meaning a bucket) and then the food was served in the steel dishes with naan bread.