Come here, fish head, I want to eat you

An item high on my list of "to be eaten" was fish head curry. Makansutra had a read on a high quality restaurant not too far from the house up Bukit Timah, called B.K. Forture Seafood. Apparently. the name used to be B.K. Fortune Seafood, but it wasn't doing that well, and a local fortune teller advised the owner to change the name to Forture. The owner did and business took off. It also seemed to benefit from a story of an expat who came and couldn't pay for the S$50 meal, which the restaurant shrugged off and told him to come back next time.

We arrived and sat down at a large round banquet table for eight, just the three and a half of us.

The first dish to arrive was homemade braised beancurd. Surprisingly, the beancurd had been shapped into scallop-sized portions and had a thick crust on it. Even more surprisingly, the dish was laden with prawns and soaking in a thick red sauce. The tofu was very nice, thick and hot with good infused flavor. The prawns were only so-so, and the sauce was best for soaking into the tofu but not for eating plain.

The second dish to make its way was Thai-style fish head curry. The presentation was spectacular, on a raised silver platter sat a large (8 inch long) whole fish's head, of red snapper, I think. The fish flesh that we could find (largely in the neck and cheeks) was moist and delicious. The curry was superb, rich with spices, tomatoes, and other vegetables. It all disappeared quickly.

On a bit of a lark we ordered the herbal chicken. This chicken is braised for a long period of time in a liquid that includes several ingredients common to Chinese medicine, things like wolfberries. The meat was well-cooked, and fell off of the bone, making chopsticks a worthwhile eating implement. The flavor of the dish took some adjusting to: it retained a medicinal "mouthfeel" and also tasted old and earthy. It wasn't old bad, just old, which was a new taste for me.

The final dish was a plate of braised baby kailan. This was a very good green that paired nicely with the rest of the meal. And, always good to add some foliage to the mix.

It was a very good meal, and put some flesh, literally, on the idea of fish head curry. It may perhaps be a dish that scares more with its name than with its taste, as the fish itself tasted like fish (indeed, the best parts) and the curry was a great complement.