CHICKEN tikka masala, madras and rogan josh are as much a part of a North-East town's cuisine as fish and chips, an expert said last night.

Former restaurant owner Khadim Hussain has spent the past three years researching the history of the curry house in Middlesbrough and is hoping to publish his work in the summer.

There are three main contenders for the first curry house to open in the town - The Paradise, The Kenya Caf and Bengali Lascar - all opened by lascars, Indian sailors.

The Kenya, now the Bongo Club, operated only when spices were available and that depended on buying or bartering for spices brought into the port by Indian lascars.

For Mr Hussain, arriving in Middlesbrough in 1975 was an education.

He had been used to eating in the Indian restaurants of Bradford, which were run by and catered for Punjabi Muslims from Pakistan and served halal meat with no menu choices.

He said last night: "No one on the Indian subcontinent would recognise a curry menu. When you go to Pakistan, to a roadside caf, they don't give you a menu. You get what they have cooked that day.''

* Mr Hussain is keen to know when the Paradise caf, which used to be in Sussex Street, Middlesbrough, changed its name to Paris and to see any photographs showing the earlier interiors of the first curry houses to open in the town. He can be contacted (01642) 801269.