Earlier this week, Mister Singh's India broke the news that Madhur Jaffrey had visited their fine establishment for her new TV show Curry Nation. (A good friend of TATTGOC also intimated that he was dining at a fine Peckham establishment while the cameras were following the UK's curry godmother.) We talked a little about Jaffrey's forthcoming show in Episode 7 of Keep Calm And Curry On, and we're also looking forward to watching and reviewing it when it screens on the Good Food network later this year.

But isn't it time that we had some new faces on the TV talking about curry? Usually, we'd spin this out into the long-cherished pitch Trampy and The Tramp have prepared for their own fantastic TV show – it involves a hilarious means of transport, puttering around the country sampling curries far and wide – but instead of self-promoting, we'd rather put a spotlight on Nisha Katona, a far more attractive and knowledgeable talent who has been tirelessly preaching her own personalised curry gospel on YouTube and Twitter. We'd love to see her on proper telly. Why? Here are three reasons:


Originally a lawyer by trade, Katona hasn't just set up a camcorder and started rambling about curry. She's come up with her own structured way of explaining how to make authentic dishes, and for people who like to stick to a framework when cooking, it's pretty reassuring to go through her checklist. Here be the basics:




And if you don't get the basics right, then you'll hit all sorts of problems further down the road. Which is why Katona's amazing dahl recipe is so brilliant – simple to follow, but also easy to adapt.



Katona inherited much of her knowledge from her dear old ma, and she's not afraid to get her mentor in front of the camera. And the matter-of-fact way Katona Sr adjusts the pan and fetches some kitchen roll to tame some popping Panch Paron is genuinely amazing.

Get them both on BBC2 now!

The distinguished members of TATTGOC sure do love their curry, as evidenced by their increasingly outdated title of Curry Lovers Of The Year 2010. But their ongoing quest for spicy satisfaction isn't merely limited to TATTGOC's regular excursions to some of Glasgow's hidden-gem curryhouses. If they happen across almost any curry-related foodstuff, Trampy and The Tramp feel compelled to take it for a spin – and thus was born the irregular feature Tastin' With The Tramps. So what spicy product is in the hot seat this time? Why, it's only the lunchtime tiffin delivery from Glasgow's own Babu Bombay Street Kitchen!

Earlier this week, the fifth annual Scottish Curry Awards took place at the Thistle Hotel in Glasgow, before an audience comprised of the creme de la creme of the nation's curry scene. After attending in all their finery for the last three years, the Tramps were unable to make an appearance in 2012 (one was working hard, the other quietly putting themselves back together after a hectic RockNess). But thanks to the reporting efforts of STV's Laura Piper and Hector at the Curry-Heute blog, they were able to get a flavour of how things went down. (To hear what the Tramps thought of the shortlist before the actual awards, just listen to the news section of our most recent Keep Calm And Curry On podcast.)

Some guy from the Coonsil

The Tramps – and by extension, the entire TATTGOC brotherhood – have never claimed to be curry experts. As it says on the beautiful 2010 trophy still regularly passed back and forth between Trampy and The Tramp, they are “curry lovers” ... enthusiasts in the all-inclusive, beardy spirit of the Hairy Bikers rather than Masterchef’s tut-tutting Torode and Wallace. That said, we have probably eaten more curry in the past three years than some people will manage in a lifetime, and with that amount of conspicuous consumption comes a certain level of knowledge, even if it’s instinctive rather than the result of book-learnin’. Call it a gut feeling, in more ways than one.

So when Café India, the resurgent Indian restaurant in the Merchant City, got in touch to ask if the massed, ribald ranks of the Curry Club would be interested in helping them test-drive some proposed extensions to their recently-launched tapas menu, it would have been ridiculous to refuse. For what better focus group could there be then Glasgow’s foremost curry adventurers? For if there’s one thing the boys are good at, it’s telling you what their preferences are when it comes to curry. (Often after the ordering has been done, it has to be said.)