Fish Head Curry, Singapore-Style

Fri, 30 May 2025 11:00:00 +0000

Fish head curry is one of those dishes that could only have been born in a port city where cultures live on top of one another. The story usually credited is that of a Keralan cook named M.J. Gomez, who in 1949 ran a restaurant in Singapore and noticed that his Chinese customers prized the fish head above all other cuts, as the sweetest, gelatinous, most prestigious part. So he took the South Indian fish curry of his home coast and built it around a whole head. A Malayali gravy, a Chinese reverence for the head, tamarind and coconut from the Malay kitchen, all in one clay pot. It became a Singaporean institution, eaten by everyone, claimed by nobody in particular.

Kaya Toast with Soft-Boiled Eggs

Wed, 29 May 2024 06:00:00 +0000

Kaya toast is Singapore and Malaysia in a single mouthful: thin, crisp toast, a cold slab of butter, and a thick swipe of kaya, the fragrant coconut-egg jam that gives the dish its name. Alongside it come two soft-boiled eggs, seasoned with dark soy and white pepper and eaten as a warm dip, and a cup of strong local coffee. The whole thing is a fifty-year-old coffee-shop ritual, and the part worth making from scratch is the kaya. My version leans into a proper caramel base for a deeper, almost butterscotch note under the coconut and pandan.

Singaporean - vo.rs

Fish Head Curry, Singapore-Style

Kaya Toast with Soft-Boiled Eggs