A blast from the past

Soon Heng Curry Fish Head Restaurant
39 Kinta Rd
Singapore 219108
+65 6294 6561

Soon Heng is somewhat of a personal Mecca for me, in that one day I must make the trip there. I have eaten their food many times: my grandmother used to buy their fish head curry and curry chicken, among other dishes – and as children we would eat them on our weekly visits to her house. For the longest time I thought my grandmother made those dishes herself, and I was strangely liberated when I found out that they were store-bought and realised that I, too, could have those dishes whenever I wanted them. For a price, of course. Yet even though I am intimately familiar with their cuisine, I have never actually been there, and I consider it a missing piece of my life story puzzle.

Fish head curry is a distinctly Singaporean dish – made possible by the city-state’s unique confluence of Chinese, Malay and Indian culinary traditions. The premise of the dish is simple – the heads of large fishes such as groupers or red snappers are stewed in a mixture of curry powder, asam (tamarind) juice, chilli peppers, coconut milk and a variety of other spices. Brinjal (eggplant) and okra are also added to the curry. It is served with white rice, and true devotees eat everything they can off the head – eyeballs and all – before mopping up the curry with crusty day-old bread.

The fish head curry at Soon Heng is good, but it is far from the best representation of the dish you can find, and also not even the main draw at the restaurant it gives its name to. The standouts at Soon Heng are the curry chicken wings and a spectacular squid dish – stewed in its own ink, with asam juice and onions. I remember going on a fishing trip with Jeremy one time and trying to explain to him how amazing this dish was – saying that the squid was “so black, that it looks green”. It made sense in my head as I said it, and he burst out into uncontrollable laughter not at the absurdity of the statement, but because he knew exactly what I meant.

My mother, bless her heart, bought me dinner the other day on her way back from a mahjong session – and at my request made the trip to Soon Heng. Like I said, I have never actually been there, so I don’t quite know where it is, nor what it looks like. I know that it is off Race Course Rd, and that is the extent of my knowledge.

If the standard of Soon Heng’s curry had slipped, I did not notice. Their curry is spicy but not overly so, but what I enjoy about it is its heft and incredible greasiness. I don’t think they add coconut milk to it, so it is a thick, aqueous liquid with some small visible chunks, glistening in a sheen of oil. The asam makes it nice and sour, and it is a perfect complement to meats; though I would be happy just slathering it on white rice and eating that alone.


It was with some apprehension that I tried the squid braised in its own ink. After so many years, I wondered if it would hold the same magic for me. When I think of the foods that define my childhood, this features prominently among them. The memory of the tart squid ink is something pure and unspoiled in my mind, and with one bite I risked losing that forever.


I need not have feared. The squid ink sauce was as sweet and tangy as ever, and the squid itself still fat and firm. It rendered me unable to speak, or even think, for several blissful seconds; and my mother rolled her eyes and looked at me like I was crazy.

It occurs to me that I cannot even objectively say that this restaurant is good. My opinion is coloured too much by memories from my childhood that even now, with a more discerning palate, there is still a soft spot in my heart for this place. One day I will actually make the trip to Soon Heng, and see for myself what other options there are. Yet maybe that day I will finally find something to be disappointed by, and I don’t know if I want to risk that or not.