A Mound of Curry on a Banana Leaf

Last night we finally made our way to the famous Banana Leaf Apolo, having read so much about it but never made it there. I met Mr Greedy Glutton from his office in the CBD and headed up to Little India – I love that about Singapore, that just a few stops on the MRT and you could be in a totally different country altogether. We past lots of very tempting smells from the various restaurants on Race Course Road, but we had our sights set on one place and one place only – The Banana Leaf Apolo.

I’m afraid to say we shied away from the dish that made this restaurant famous – the Fish Head Curry – better to try it when we are with someone experienced at digging out the flesh from the cheeks and eyes (or at least that’s how we justified our cowardice!). Instead we opted for Chicken Masala (very tender chicken on the bone in a masala sauce), Mutton Mysore (a dry lamb curry riddled with chillies) and a Prawn Masala (an enormous prawn in a spicy masala sauce).

Our banana leaves were duly delivered to the table (no plates here) and a man appeared with buckets of vegetable curries which were sploshed on top of our banana leaves – you don’t order vegetables here, they just bring you their selection of the day. Today’s selection was a cabbage dish and an okra dish, awash with fresh spices. Another man appeared and piled up our banana leaves with a mound of vegetable rice, again full of fresh spices.

Altogether a delicious and hearty meal – and we were certainly grateful for the large glasses of lime juice to take the edge off the spiciness of the dishes. We left there having totally overeaten (no surprises there!) and waddled our way back to the MRT.

And this morning… my hands are still stained yellow from digging into the curry with my fingers…

(no photo to accompany, my camera chose last night to run out of batteries)

Banana Leaf Apolo – www.thebananaleafapolo.com