Talk of the Town: The light shines on Begum's best

HIS restaurant features in the Rebus thriller Set in Darkness and he counts Ian Rankin and the justice secretary Kenny MacAskill amongst his most loyal customers.

Now Noonu Miah is celebrating 20 years since he opened Pataka, in Causewayside, with a special menu created by his wife Begum.

Mr Miah, whose Indian eaterie has been a particular hit with American tourists ever since it featured in the novel in 2000, hopes the special menu, launched this week, will reward customers for their support in recent years.

"My wife doesn't normally work in the restaurant at all but she will prepare some special Bengali dishes that even our most frequent customers will never have tasted before."

Something for Chinese hosts to get teeth into

WHAT do you get for the country with the fastest growing economy in the world?

Well, shortbread, of course! At least that was the gift presented by rags-to-riches superstar Susan Boyle to hosts China, where she performed in front of a television audience of 400 million people.

SuBo was given a silk dress by her hosts and in return she handed over a box containing the traditional Scots sugary biscuit.

Gone without trace

AFTER a screening at the Filmhouse last night of South - the story of Shackleton's Antarctic exploration - artist Layla Curtis was scheduled to do a talk on an art project carried out while travelling with the British Antarctic Survey.

She took a GPS along to trace all her movements, logging them, along with pictures, on her ingenious website, polarwandering.com. One of the Evening News team, who lived in the Falkland Islands at the time, had the pleasure of meeting the former ECA student when she stopped over in Stanley.

She came round for lunch, with her GPS - but when the time came to leave, she had lost it. Frantic searches ensued - even inside the fridge, in case it had been put away with the cheese.

Finally, the GPS was uncovered - in the hood of her coat.

We're delighted to see that both she and the GPS made it safely around the rest of her route.

Phil is king of the quips

IT seems Edinburgh's trams have now become the butt of royal humour.

Prince Philip, on a recent visit to the Methil Heritage Centre in Fife, reportedly noticed an old photograph of a tram and raised a laugh by suggesting: "Sell it to Edinburgh."