Of fish heads and expensive room

Yeoh Siew Hoon TraveMole’s Singapore based correspondent says she read a report the other day that fish head may soon end up on the endangered list.

This is her story!

This news grabbed my attention not because I am an ichthyologist – that’s someone who studies fish either for fun or work – but because I grew up in a culture where heads are revered more than tails.

That’s because ancient Asian wisdom knows that in matters of the heart and soul, the tail merely goes where the head leads, although in the human species, it can be the other way around.

Everyone knows therefore that the fish – any fish – stink from the head downwards.

In Singapore, fish head is cooked in many ways. There’s of course fish head curry which has often put the fear of Neptune into foreigners unused to the sight of eyes looking at them from a plate.

Fish head curry comes in different styles. I like the Indian style, served in restaurants such as Samy’s or Muthu’s. But I also have a weakness for the Peranakan Assam-style fish head, which is cooked with lots of tamarind juices – Blue Ginger does a pretty mean version. Then there’s the Chinese variety cooked with black bean sauce.

In Japanese cuisine, salmon is considered to give good head – probably the most expensive head anyone can buy.

Any news therefore that fish heads may soon disappear from the menu warrants our attention.

An Australian study says that this could happen in just 10 years given the intense commercial fishing of the seas of South-east Asia.

Released by Australia’s Lowy Institute for International Policy, and written by fisheries expert Meryl Williams, it says that the density of fish in the Gulf of Thailand declined by 86% between 1961 and 1991 – meaning the amount of fish caught per hour by each trawler fell ‘more than sevenfold’ between 1966 and 1994.

In the Philippines, catches are now as low as 10%.

The study calls this an emergency in the making – the crisis, it says, will not only affect economies but livelihoods and lead to border incursions and bilateral tensions.

I relate this story because it reminds me of what is happening with hotel rooms in Singapore.

Hotel rooms are becoming as rare as fish heads in this city. As a result, rates are soaring to stratospheric levels. I got rate quotations from a four-star hotel which went from S$340 to $480 to $800 in a week – for the same room type.

I fear these wild fluctuations – which sent my heart into palpitations – could soon lead to bar room brawls and street fights between customers/travel agents/event organisers and hoteliers.

It’s not just that rates are soaring that is the problem; it’s that it’s happening at a time when service levels are dropping off.

Taxi drivers misbehaving badly, sloppy service in restaurants, patchy service in hotels – the customer experience isn’t getting better; yet rates are rising.

So what do you get? The Point of Low Return. That’s the time when a destination crosses the point of diminishing returns in terms of perceived customer value.

Despite their scarcity, I am told by my mother that fish heads are not fluctuating that wildly in prices. You can still get a pretty good piece of fish and have money left for its tail.

And with fish heads, what you see is what you get. If the eyes are pink, it means the head is fresh. If it’s glassy and grey, give it to the cat.

See, you can’t apply this to hotel rooms. It’s the things you can’t see but feel that matter to the buyer.

Catch more of Yeoh Siew Hoon every week at The Transit Cafe