Everyone Loves Fishhead Curry

As a number of Vicky's co-workers from the States were out here at the same time, a group of us decided to head out to dinner one night. We wanted to find a good, family-style place that was relaxing for a big group. Indian food sounded good to everyone. On the recommendation of a few people we decided to try a place called Samy's Curry over on Dempsey Hill -- a cool area that has numerous restaurants and shops.

Samy's is really relaxed and perfect for a big group. Big, long tables and excellent service. After being seated, instead of getting plates, each person's place is set with a giant banana leaf. I guess it saves a lot on clean-up, and is better for the environment as you can just compost the whole "plate" and everything left on it.

As soon as you get your banana leaf, the food starts coming out fast and furious. People start streaming to the table with tons of different dishes. First were two kinds of prawns - curry and tandoori. These really exemplified the oxymoron of "jumbo shrimp" -- they were huge. After the prawns, the parade of food continued faster than you could eat it -- different curried, tandoori chicken, dried chicken, veggies, naan. It was amazing. You did not have a chance to eat what they gave you before another type of dish arrived. The food just piled and piled on your leaf.

The main dish -- the one we heard Samy's was famous for -- needed to be ordered separate. This dish was their fish head curry! This is, not surprisingly, just what the name implies -- a big bowl of curry with a fish head in it. (It is a bit hard to see in the picture, but the jaw is by the bottom right of the picture, the neck is where the spoon is and the eye is the milky white part in the middle of the bottom third of the head.) It was mostly submerged in the delicious curry sauce when it arrived at the table.

Apparently, the best part is the cheek meat. You kind of have to dig into the head with the spoon and pull out the delicate meat from between the bones and cartilage. Spooning what you extract over some rice helps soak up the wonderful sauce. The other delicacy is, what I was told, the eye. (I'm not sure if this is right, or if people were making this up just so two of us would eat them). There is a hard membrane that you need to pick off to get to the edible part of the eye. It is a bit squishy, but did not "pop" as I thought it might. It also did not taste much different from the rest of the fish.

Overall, the food was great, the company was fantastic and the evening was a blast. If you are in town, and really hungry (because the food keeps on coming) give it a try.

This weekend is a holiday weekend here in Singapore, so Vicky and I are heading to Brunei for the long weekend. Rumor has it that the sultan only opens the royal palace to visitors once a year -- on Hari Raya, which is this weekend. Hopefully, we can get a rare chance to check out the inside of the royal palace. I'll let you know when I post about this trip!