2004 - April 30th (The Times) - Bollywood actress has transatlantic takeaway: An Indian restaurant in Essex made a home delivery yesterday - to an apartment in Manhattan.
Miss Poppy, the Bollywood actress and star of Jakon Brisi Namlo (Rain Is Falling), had eaten at the Mogul restaurant in Saffron Walden while she visited Britain for the first time this month.
Now in New York where she is shooting a new film called The Water, the actress decided to treat herself and the film crew to a meal and decided that the Mogul's Indian food was far superior to anything that she could find in the Big Apple.
Dillon Miah, the restaurant's owner, accompanied the specially prepared banquet on its journey across the Atlantic, delivering the food personally.
The meal included the actress's favourite dish, Baing Mas (snake fish), Chicken Tikka Masala and Onion Bhajis, all prepared by Sanayor Miah, the Mogul's chef. The bill came to £2,600, including delivery.
Mr. Miah said: 'We had a call on Tuesday night and then a fax with the order on Wednesday morning. Sanayor Miah began cooking at 8am and finished at midday. We went to Miss Poppy's apartment as soon as we touched down. She loved the food and was very pleased.'
The transatlantic takeaway was brought by Mr. Miah and Miss Poppy's director, Bulbul Zilani, to Heathrow at 8pm on Wednesday.
Mr. Zilani said: 'It was her first trip to England and she thought the food was wonderful, and much better than anything in New York.
So when she asked us to get a meal for herself and the crew from the Mogul, I flew over to organise it.'
Miss Poppy is one of the best-known names in Bengali cinema and has starred in dozens of popular films.

2004 - May 22nd (East Anglian Daily Times) - Spicy Hot Pot to feed 14,000: Sizzling bid for biggest curry - An award-winning chef is hoping to spice up the lives of students when he attempts to create the world's largest curry.
Sumu Miah, head chef at the Mogul Indian restaurant in Manningtree and winner of British Culinary Award, will cook the four-tonne vegetable curry to raise money for the Lord Mayor's Charities. Mr. Miah, who is also a lecturer at Suffolk College in Ipswich, hopes his culinary creation will turn him into world-beater, earning him a place in the record books for cooking the largest curry. The 6ft high, 7ft wide dish in which the giant curry will be cooked was on display yesterday outside the Mogul.
The world-record attempt will be made on June 14th at Suffolk College - and portions of the curry will then be sold to students for £1 each.
Mustafa Olad, designer of the huge cooking pot, said: 'It can hold around 14,000 portions of curry and should beat the previous world record by about one-and-a-half tonnes. We will hopefully be cooking it live on TV and everyone is invited along to the college to enjoy the fun.
'It is this type of event that the Guinness Book Of Records was created for: We can have a go at becoming world-beaters, whilst at the same time raise a lot of money for a very worthwhile cause.'
The giant dish should have cost £4,500 to make, but Halstead-based Hunwick Engineers charged only £2,400 for materials.