And for reasons too long to go into (naturally another Scary One misbooking around a Pink gig) we find ourselves currying favour with Billy Connolly in Glasgow.
Alas, The Big Yin can’t be with us in person but we’re guided to the best Glasgow nights out with his latest book The Rambling Man.
And reminisces about Glasgow’s West End with him at the cricket from when we both lived in the south of England.
When we retraced shared memories of barbers and curry nights in our hometown and his own fave, the Koh-I-Noor.
Billy memorably summed up our city’s fascination with curries by recanting proudly how he had conquered the Glasgow Marathon.
Twenty-six pints and two cuuries.
The Curry Canyon
Of course Billy is a long-time sober now.
But he still speaks warmly of those days and I will channel that too in our trip down Memory Lane…
Or Gibson Street, as it was long known and established in Glasgow.
Alas it is no longer the Broadway, Rodeo Drive, Las Vegas Strip or Bourbon Street of Glaswegian Subcontinental food.
Gibson Street, or the ‘Curry Canyon’.
Being the one-time home of the Maharajah, the Himalaya, the Shalimar and the Shish Mahal.
Curry on celebrity
Twas where, of course, celebs came currying favour with Billy Connolly in Glasgow, Naan Mean City.
The dining scene has now branched out across the West End, City Centre and dare we say it, South Side.
The most famous curry house in Glasgow, the Shish Mahal, is alas lost to us, a victim of Covid’s crush on hospitality.
But it will remain in the hearts, guts and on the palate.
Of all who tuck into a Chicken Tikka Masala.
The brainchild of Ali Assam who concocted a chicken tikka offshoot.
After a customer had asked for something a little less dry.
And infused it with cream, yogurt and spices, and in some stories tomato soup.
Ruby bring your food to town
The spices were in truth in Mr Ali’s blood having learned the traditions at the hand of his father Noor Mohammed.
At Glasgow’s first curry house, the Green Gates Café on nearby Bank Street.
And so wherever we find ourselves, a Mother India or a Mr Singh with his haggis infusions, we will raise a glass.
To Noor Mohammed, Mr Ali, Billy Connolly, Lulu and generations of Glaswegians.
Who loved a Ruby and a late-night lager at a time when the pubs shut at 10pm.
And continue that tradition to this day.
As we will and tell you all about it in the morning after we get our heads down later at the Premier Inn in Pacific Quay