Samy's Curry Restaurant, Dempsey Road

This place (25 Dempsey Road, 6472-2080) is a Singaporean institution, serving up South Indian cuisine, as well as that notable Singaporean concoction, fishhead curry. I'm told that fishhead curry was developed as a result of poor South Indian workers in Singapore that were forced to eat the remains of fish that the wealthy had discarded. In order to bring out the flavor, they thus had to stew it in a curry. That sounds a lot like Korean "Army Soup" and countless other dishes across the world (haggis, menudo, feijoada, etc.) that were once created as a result of near-poverty but are now commonly enjoyed.



Unfortunately, I'm not a big fan of South Indian food (I don't like the mix of spices - I prefer North Indian instead). As a result, I don't really enjoy Samy's too much either. But locals will swear by the fishhead curry here. I can respect the dish, but my palate just doesn't agree with so many conflicting spices ground up like this. They also have these huge prawns in a red sauce that appear to be quite popular, but I'm not a fan either. Hey - I do like the veggies though, and I'm still amused with the novelty of them serving everything on banana leaves and walking by with metal tins. But I'm really still waiting for Bukhara to re-open.