As American (and international) palates evolved and became more sophisticated through the 90s and early 2000s, diners cried out for authenticity and fusion became an ugly word.

I think now diners have turned full circle and are now just seeking things that taste good . . .and fusion has returned to the table.

Either that or a tiny shop in Fremont, California doesn’t care for dining trends and just put two good ideas together.

Wait, what? Pizza AND Curry?

Yes for true fusion! Meeting up with my met-in-Shanghai-now-living-elsewhere friends Mungai, CJ and Grace in Fremont when we were all in the South Bay, Pizza and Curry was the perfect central meeting location for all of us. We opted for the Chicken Masala pizza (Creamy garlic sauce, masala chicken (white meat), red onions, diced tomatoes and topped with fresh cilantro.) and a boring Italian pizza. I think next time, all of us would choose two Indian pizzas

here’s the menu:

not a whole lot to say, the pizza was really tasty. Indian food on pizza is not so different than eating indian food on naan or roti or any other sort of bread product.

Pizza and Curry
42136 Blacow Rd
Fremont, CA 94538
USA
(510) 687-0000
Price: Pretty cheap! Grace treated us!

“well we could go to tandoor at the holiday inn – its quite nice with table cloths or we could go to samy’s curry and eat off banana leaves”

well, i like fine dining as much as anyone, but anytime you have a chance to eat curries off banana leaves, i say you need to take it. besides i can get decent restaurant indian food here in shanghai (vedas, masala arts, etc.) but indian food meaning cheap curries on rice? sign me up.

little more than a ramshackle dining room with a service counter in the back, samy’s would horrify quite a lot of people. uneven tables – ours was wobbly all night – and some desultory service, samy’s doesn’t do great first impressions on sight. however, the smell, well, that i could get used to.

i find indian food to be one of the more fragrant asian cuisines – along with thai food. not all chinese food smells mouthwatering good, and a good portion of japanese food is delicate. but the curries? mmm, that’s the smell of awesome – and samy’s was immediately fragrant as we walked back to make our order.

again, the service was a bit haphazard, but we finally found someone to take our order – some mutton curry, paneer, garlic and plain naan, briyani, some stuff i never found out what it was, but it was good – oh and the chicken! that was some especially good tandoori chicken.

sorry for the washed out look of the photo – it was completely underexposed, but i didn’t want to spend my time taking photos of the food – i was hungry. so i tried to lighten it up in post-processing, but then it all became washed out. the colors here are much more vibrant than they appear in the photo.

one of the complaints on hungrygowhere is about the cold curry – but we didn’t find that to be an issue at all – it was just good hearty mix of punjabi style curries and tandoori dishes.

we left feeling stuffed, and while not as cheap as hawker centres or india itself, it certainly was a lot more attractive price option than what i have to pay here in shanghai (punjabi aside) so i’d go back again quite easily.

Samy’s Curry Restaurant (Dempsey)
Address
25A Dempsey Road
Tanglin Village (Dempsey Hill Green)

Tel: +65 6472 2080
2 people – well, sandra snatched the bill before i could look at it – but the websites seem to suggest S20 per person.