The story
Fish-head curry isn't from India — it's a Singaporean invention from the 1950s-60s. A Kerala-born cook named M. J. Gomez is widely credited with creating it at a small stall, marrying South Indian spices with the Chinese habit of cooking fish heads (and a happy coincidence — fish heads were cheap). Muthu Veerappan opened his eponymous restaurant in 1969 and made his version the most famous. The dish is now so 'Singaporean' that it appears in tourism campaigns alongside chilli crab.