British Curry Awards 2012: The Results, Yo
We just celebrated our fourth birthday, but TATTGOC is going through a slightly transitional period adjusting to a new status quo. Regular readers might have thought they were about to be fobbed off with a series of old posts hastily reframed as "Retrospective: TATTGOC Classics" or "The Tramp's Favourite Post Of The Past Four Years". But no, we're better than that. You're getting fobbed off with the mostly cut-and-pasted results of the British Curry Awards, which took place at Battersea Evolution (!) earlier this very week.
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| If you've ever played Marvel Vs Capcom 2, it's hard not to blurt "Berserker Farage" |
Now in their eighth year, the British Curry Awards are organised by Mr Enam Ali (pictured above) and the 2012 installment was hosted by Jenny Bond and Rory Bremner. (We like to imagine that this meant all the nominees in each category were announced in the rat-a-tat yet dapper style of horseracing commentary legend Peter O'Sullevan, because Jenny Bond is awesome at that.) Among the hundreds of curry fans and nominees in attendance, there were quite a few personalities and celebs, including Chris Grayling MP, recent Harry And Paul guest star Nigel Farage and Dragons' Den dude Theo Paphitis. Other notable guests included Catchphrase legend Roy Walker and Highlander star/Mother India regular James Cosmo. JAMES COSMO LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!
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| A keen astronomer, Cosmo once reviewed Orion's Belt. "Three stars," he said |
Prime Minister David "Dave" Cameron has long supported the awards, and while he could not appear in person, he did open the event with a video message. “It is often said that curry is Britain's national dish – and it’s easy to see why," he said. "It’s not just the flavours served up in the thousands of curry restaurants across the country, it is the welcome too. Those who work in the curry industry enliven Britain’s high streets, boost local economies and contribute to local communities.” And in all honesty, we find it hard to disagree. So after Scotland did so well in the recent Curry Capital 2012 competition, how did we fare in these awards? And when are they going to introduce a "punniest blog" category?
The Winners
(click on their names for more details)
(click on their names for more details)
Best Restaurant Scotland Taj Indian, Prestwick
Best Restaurant North East Aagrah, Leeds
Best Spice Restaurant North West Indian Ocean, Ashton-under-Lyne
Best Spice Restaurant Midlands Itihaas, Birmingham
Best Newcomer Restaurant Midlands Five Rivers A La Carte, Walsall
Best Restaurant Wales Rasoi Indian Kitchen, Swansea
Best Restaurant South East Haweli, Twyford, Berkshire
Best Newcomer Restaurant South East Shampan 4 The Spinning Wheel, Westerham, Kent
Best Restaurant South West Spice Lodge, Cheltenham
Best Newcomer Restaurant South West The Mint Room, Bath
Best Restaurant Central London and City Bombay Palace, Paddington
Best Newcomer Restaurant Central London and City Chakra, Notting Hill
Best Restaurant London Suburbs Chak 89, Surrey
Best in Casual Dining The Chilli Pickle, Brighton
There was further success for Scotland when the Best Delivery Restaurant/Takeaway title was awarded to Mushtaqs in Hamilton, which is as fine a reason as any to use this excellent picture from their website:
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| A terrific image, certainly, but for a Hamilton curryhouse, one ripe for a "Bellahouston, we have a problem" gag |
There was also a Special Recognition Achievement Award for Dipna Anan, noting her professional successes in the catering industry, the first time that this award has been bestowed upon a woman. So congratulations to all the winners, especially the Taj Indian and Mushtaqs for representing Scotland so well. And if the Casual Dining winner Chilli Pickle in Brighton sounds familiar, The Tramp discussed it in some detail within the review section of episode six of our excellent Keep Calm And Curry On podcast.
The British Curry Awards attracts around 270,000 public votes so is not to be sniffed at. And here at TATTGOC, we've been inspired to hold our own impromptu mini-awards – Best Background Music On A British Curry Award Winner's Website. Choosing just one victor from the crowded field was too difficult, so here are the top three, starting with the gold:
1. Haweli, Tyford – undoubtedly authentic and yet upbeat
2. Spice Lodge, Cheltenham – traditional but laidback, an invitation to linger
3. Five Rivers A La Carte, Walsall – contemporary but pleasingly spacey
And that's it for another week on TATTGOC. Next Thursday, we'll be casting an eye backwards to try and ascertain once and for all ... what is The Tramp's favourite post of the past four years?
SOME OTHER RECENT TATTGOC NEWS POSTS
Happy 4th Birthday To Us (Now With Added Births)
Curry Capital 2012 Result: The TATTGOC Breakdown
Screen Queens Keen You Glean Cuisine Means In National Curry Week
Put Down That Yorkie And Prepare Thyself For National Curry Week
The Tramps Go "POP"
Our Curry Podcast Hits Double Figures Yet Maturity Remains Elusive
Let's Get Back To Helping Glasgow Reclaim The Curry Capital Title
Woo-Who! It's Edinburgh's Curry Tardis!
Edinburghers Recommend Their Favourite Curryhouse – Part Two
Edinburghers Recommend Their Favourite Curryhouse – Part One
Happy 4th Birthday To Us! (Now With Added Births)
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The Official Charts Company recently celebrated the 60th anniversary of the UK hit parade, even though the first few rundowns were literally just a guy from the New Musical Express ringing round a few record shops (at least according to this blog post). Similarly, the origins of Trampy and The Tramp's Glasgow of Curry, despite being inaugurated only four short years ago, are shrouded in mystery. What we do know is this: according to the official report from the first ever outing – to the Indian Orchard in Partick – it took place on November 20th 2008. So we've elected to recognise TATTGOC's 4th anniversary this very week (which is fitting because it also [sort of] coincides with the one-year anniversary of the world's greatest and spiciest podcast, Keep Calm And Curry On).
Four years! Look how young we all looked!
OK. So we didn't look that young. But still.
Birthday posts are usually an excuse to throw stats at people. For instance, we could point out that this is the 246th TATTGOC post. And that over the past four years we've officially visited 43 curryhouses (and one brewery) and received over a BILLION pageviews. (One of these might not be entirely true – it might just have been 42 curryhouses.) We've won awards (one award) and been featured on television and radio and in newspapers, websites and magazines around the world.
But the thing we'd like to focus on is family. The TATTGOC brotherhood has always included an equivalent sisterhood, and over the past four years that extended family has grown even further, with the addition of six Curry Cubs (and while no-one is necessarily keeping score, it's worth noting that Sir Spicy Lover has gone the extra mile by having two). Very recently, The Tramp and Mumbai Me A Pony welcomed the latest Curry Cub to the family, and while it will necessarily be a little while before she can pass judgement on the hasina lamb chops at the Shish Mahal, we're sure she's raring to get started. She even has a "Curry Fury" onesie, just like her dad.
So to all the Curry Cubs, and the TATTGOC family, a heartfelt salute. Here's to the next billion pageviews ...
SOME OTHER RECENT TATTGOC NEWS POSTS
Curry Capital 2012 Result: The TATTGOC Breakdown
Screen Queens Keen You Glean Cuisine Means In National Curry Week
Put Down That Yorkie And Prepare Thyself For National Curry Week
The Tramps Go "POP"
Our Curry Podcast Hits Double Figures Yet Maturity Remains Elusive
Let's Get Back To Helping Glasgow Reclaim The Curry Capital Title
Woo-Who! It's Edinburgh's Curry Tardis!
Edinburghers Recommend Their Favourite Curryhouse – Part Two
Edinburghers Recommend Their Favourite Curryhouse – Part One
TATTGOC Proudly Presents: A Month Of Capital Curry!
The Official Charts Company recently celebrated the 60th anniversary of the UK hit parade, even though the first few rundowns were literally just a guy from the New Musical Express ringing round a few record shops (at least according to this blog post). Similarly, the origins of Trampy and The Tramp's Glasgow of Curry, despite being inaugurated only four short years ago, are shrouded in mystery. What we do know is this: according to the official report from the first ever outing – to the Indian Orchard in Partick – it took place on November 20th 2008. So we've elected to recognise TATTGOC's 4th anniversary this very week (which is fitting because it also [sort of] coincides with the one-year anniversary of the world's greatest and spiciest podcast, Keep Calm And Curry On).
Four years! Look how young we all looked!
OK. So we didn't look that young. But still.
Birthday posts are usually an excuse to throw stats at people. For instance, we could point out that this is the 246th TATTGOC post. And that over the past four years we've officially visited 43 curryhouses (and one brewery) and received over a BILLION pageviews. (One of these might not be entirely true – it might just have been 42 curryhouses.) We've won awards (one award) and been featured on television and radio and in newspapers, websites and magazines around the world.
But the thing we'd like to focus on is family. The TATTGOC brotherhood has always included an equivalent sisterhood, and over the past four years that extended family has grown even further, with the addition of six Curry Cubs (and while no-one is necessarily keeping score, it's worth noting that Sir Spicy Lover has gone the extra mile by having two). Very recently, The Tramp and Mumbai Me A Pony welcomed the latest Curry Cub to the family, and while it will necessarily be a little while before she can pass judgement on the hasina lamb chops at the Shish Mahal, we're sure she's raring to get started. She even has a "Curry Fury" onesie, just like her dad.So to all the Curry Cubs, and the TATTGOC family, a heartfelt salute. Here's to the next billion pageviews ...
SOME OTHER RECENT TATTGOC NEWS POSTS
Curry Capital 2012 Result: The TATTGOC Breakdown
Screen Queens Keen You Glean Cuisine Means In National Curry Week
Put Down That Yorkie And Prepare Thyself For National Curry Week
The Tramps Go "POP"
Our Curry Podcast Hits Double Figures Yet Maturity Remains Elusive
Let's Get Back To Helping Glasgow Reclaim The Curry Capital Title
Woo-Who! It's Edinburgh's Curry Tardis!
Edinburghers Recommend Their Favourite Curryhouse – Part Two
Edinburghers Recommend Their Favourite Curryhouse – Part One
TATTGOC Proudly Presents: A Month Of Capital Curry!
From Our Foreign Curryspondent: Dateline ... Moscow!
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(The TATTGOC brotherhood extends around the globe, and we welcome reports of curry expeditions beyond Glasgow – in this very special missive, Makhni Knife has his own spicy bloc party in the country rightly infamous for Tetris, Gorky Park and imprisoning members of Pussy Riot. Ruskie business!)
Maharajah, Moscow by Makhni Knife
Greetings, comrades! For we are comrades, are we not? A brotherhood forged in blood, iron, and fire, like hot meat and spices in a tandoor? Admittedly, some of us are more equal than others, and certain recalcitrant members of our party have dared to suggest that the present system more closely resembles a dictatorship, in which all power resides with twin despots Trotsky and The Trot. Without naming names, it any coincidence that the most vocal proponent of this view was recently dispatched to “London”, and nothing more has since been heard from him? And with that conspicuous disappearance in mind, this foreign curryspondent does not intend to question his orders. There now follows a report on the activities of the Maharajah in Moscow, as investigated by a minimal detachment of two field operatives – myself (Makhni Knife), and the Korma Chameleon.
Our working knowledge of the Russian capital being limited to the satanical location-hopping of The Master And Margarita, and the pell-mell auto-carnage of Jason Bourne’s brief but memorable visit, we arrived to find our accommodations within walking distance of the city’s most reputable curryhouse. It was duly noted that “reputation” is often a highly suspect gauge of quality, especially in a country not renowned for its warmth toward ethnic outsiders and their native cuisines.
Or perhaps we had misread the signs as our train pulled into Kursky station, and the swastikas we saw carved into the trees of a public park were actually intended to welcome Hindu immigrants with the ancient tantric symbol of auspiciousness – as opposed to the off-putting Nazi version? As every member knows, the only prejudice acceptable to Curry Club is a healthy discrimination against inferior scran …
Zealous, alert, and scowling with intensity, we made our way through the heavy Moscow rain to the doorway of the Maharaja, half-hidden as it was in a basement on an empty residential street. Inside was a sudden, almost jarring burst of colour and pleasantry – brightly-painted murals, waitresses in saris, and wide, un-Russian smiles. “Ya nye gavaryu pa Russki,” I warned the staff, having practiced this phrase almost to perfection, so that natives were often baffled, as an Englishman might be to hear a foreigner say: “I’m terribly sorry, old chap, but I don’t speak the lingo.” As it happened, this was exactly the kind of polite, plummy English spoken by our waiter, who introduced himself as Rabinder.
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| The Master and some marga-Raita |
A recent arrival from Bangalore, Rabinder was 40 days into a two-year contract at the restaurant, and said he found the Muscovites to be “pretty friendly so far”, though most of the regular customers tended to be unusually well-travelled and outward-looking. “Some of them have even been to Bangalore,” he told us. It was Friday night, but fairly quiet, and he gave us our pick of tables. The menu was a short list of authentic Indian standards – Lamb Vindaloo, Chicken Pasanda, etc – at jacked-up Russian prices that only an oil oligarch could describe as “reasonable”.
It was 220 roubles, or about £5, for a small bottle of Kingfisher. Over 500 for a plate of pilau rice. Though unschooled in the Byzantine mechanics of the country’s political corruption, we had no doubt that Vladmir Putin was somehow putting his cold, grey, fishy hand in our pockets again. Rabinder did his best to get us back on side, asking us how spicy we would like our chosen dishes (Aloo Gobi for the Korma Chameleon, an inevitable Maharajah Murg Makhni for your curryspondent).
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| Just out of shot, the naan Bread Heat |
“Spicy!” we ejaculated, and spicy they were. The Chameleon was nonetheless disappointed to find her Gobi almost entirely lacking in the promised potatoes. “Kartoffel?” she spat, re-reading the menu. “More like kart-fuck-all.” A vulgar pun, to be sure, but sufficiently witty to tickle the belly of a certain club co-founder. The butter naan, meanwhile, was a little flat but tasted home-made, and the hyper-pricey pilau rice wasn’t bad despite looking like grated supermarket cheddar.
A few bottles of the cheaper local Baltika beer nudged the meal a little closer to what we had been dreaming of on our long way across Siberia. And while we ate, a small, pale Russian girl danced happily around our table in a bright green sari and ruby red shoes. Though she was almost certainly real – or at least it seemed to us that the other diners could see her too – she also served a fairly obvious symbolic purpose, as if invented by a drunken novelist. This babushka of multi-culturalism reminded us again that curry is the only true currency, which spreads its own kind of wealth wherever it is accepted. As we filled up with Indian food, we also swelled with that great and historic Russian weakness: sentimentality.
The Damage: A brutal 2385 roubles, or almost £70 between two.
The Verdict: A pricy but heartwarming experience in a cold, harsh city!
SOME PREVIOUS FOREIGN CURRYSPONDENCE
It's Episode 11 Of Our Curry Podcast! And, Slightly Confusingly, Also Its One Year Anniversary!!
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Has it really been a whole year since Trampy and The Tramp started exchanging spicy banter on the world's only curry podcast? That means Episode 11 is a sort-of special anniversary Keep Calm And Curry On packed to the gunnels with the Tramps' signature mix of uncommonly witty and urbane newsgathering and opinion. For a podcast that's had a year to sort itself out, you might be a little surprised by the variable sound quality in the first 15 minutes or so – rest assured it gets a bit better as things go on. So what's on the docket?
In the curry news section, the Tramps salute the worthy winner of the Kismot's Kurry King/Queen competition and struggle with the word "refrigeration". They also throw a spotlight on a new event intended to help families get the most out of their weekly messages with Tom Shields and Mother India's Monir Mohammed. The Ashoka's lunchtime thali and the Halal Kebab House's Reshmi Roll are reviewed in short order, before our burly heroes chew over a post-Curry Capital 2012 question: should Glasgow be proud of their Curry Capital campaign?
And if all that sounds also too much curry-related conversation, there's also some chat about the Boots Meal Deal and what She-Hulk is like "in real life". Plus a Jukebox Puri track that might sound familiar ... and familiarly awesome. We also did the Smokey And The Bandit-style outtake before the actual song! AND PEOPLE SAY WE DON'T INNOVATE.
Two more points of order that didn't quite make it into the podcast:
1. The next issue of The List magazine has a vast Edinburgh/Glasgow takeaway round-up in their next issue, streetdate November 14. Trampy witnessed some of it in action and it looked very impressive, looking forward to the feature.
2. If you'd like to hear even more of The Tramp's dulcet tones, he recently guest-starred on the November 4 episode of The Tech Network's excellent Gamer podcast – check it out on iTunes HERE.
But back to your current programming, jammed into the Mixcloud player below:
In the curry news section, the Tramps salute the worthy winner of the Kismot's Kurry King/Queen competition and struggle with the word "refrigeration". They also throw a spotlight on a new event intended to help families get the most out of their weekly messages with Tom Shields and Mother India's Monir Mohammed. The Ashoka's lunchtime thali and the Halal Kebab House's Reshmi Roll are reviewed in short order, before our burly heroes chew over a post-Curry Capital 2012 question: should Glasgow be proud of their Curry Capital campaign?
And if all that sounds also too much curry-related conversation, there's also some chat about the Boots Meal Deal and what She-Hulk is like "in real life". Plus a Jukebox Puri track that might sound familiar ... and familiarly awesome. We also did the Smokey And The Bandit-style outtake before the actual song! AND PEOPLE SAY WE DON'T INNOVATE.
Two more points of order that didn't quite make it into the podcast:
1. The next issue of The List magazine has a vast Edinburgh/Glasgow takeaway round-up in their next issue, streetdate November 14. Trampy witnessed some of it in action and it looked very impressive, looking forward to the feature.
2. If you'd like to hear even more of The Tramp's dulcet tones, he recently guest-starred on the November 4 episode of The Tech Network's excellent Gamer podcast – check it out on iTunes HERE.
But back to your current programming, jammed into the Mixcloud player below:
DOWNLOAD THE MP3: HERE!
LISTEN ON MIXCLOUD: HERE!
(Click below for the shownotes, with useful links and info for Episode 11:)
Curry Capital 2012 Result: The TATTGOC Breakdown
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First things first: well done Bradford, for retaining the Curry Capital title in 2012. The final result was announced at 1pm on Monday earlier this week, and while it might have meant disappointment for Glasgow, our own fair No Mean City did still place second, just like in 2011. In fact, the top five places in Curry Capital 2012 mirrored the result of 2011: Bradford, Glasgow, Wolverhampton, Leicester, Edinburgh (there was a bit more to-ing and fro-ing further down the list).
What might have broken Glasgow hearts, however, was hearing that the judging panel had been unable to slide a fag paper between the top two cities, marking them both at 83 out of a possible 100 (Wolverhampton weren't that far behind either, on 81). With no definitive winner, the tiebreaker was decided by the results of two public votes – one on the official Curry Capital website, and one on the website of sponsors Hungryhouse. And after totting up the results of both polls, Bradford edged out in front. What to make of it all?
First things first: well done Bradford, for retaining the Curry Capital title in 2012. The final result was announced at 1pm on Monday earlier this week, and while it might have meant disappointment for Glasgow, our own fair No Mean City did still place second, just like in 2011. In fact, the top five places in Curry Capital 2012 mirrored the result of 2011: Bradford, Glasgow, Wolverhampton, Leicester, Edinburgh (there was a bit more to-ing and fro-ing further down the list).
What might have broken Glasgow hearts, however, was hearing that the judging panel had been unable to slide a fag paper between the top two cities, marking them both at 83 out of a possible 100 (Wolverhampton weren't that far behind either, on 81). With no definitive winner, the tiebreaker was decided by the results of two public votes – one on the official Curry Capital website, and one on the website of sponsors Hungryhouse. And after totting up the results of both polls, Bradford edged out in front. What to make of it all?
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