Covid-19 stay-home guide: Nostalgic sliced fish noodle soup

For many foodies here, the name Ka-Soh is synonymous with sliced fish beehoon soup and prawn paste chicken.

For me, it also brings back memories of sitting at a five foot way in Chin Chew Street waiting for dinner at Swee Kee Eating House, its original name, in the 1980s. The street does not exist anymore as the area has been redeveloped as China Square.

Ka-Soh, which is Cantonese for daughter-in-law, was what everyone called one of the serving staff. She would give you a tongue-lashing if you asked why your food was taking so long to come, so we were all in awe of her.

Tucking into the Sliced Fish Noodle Soup ($8.77) at home last week, I wondered if it was nostalgia that made me feel it did not taste as robust as in those days. Or perhaps today's more hygienic kitchens do not produce the same old-world flavours.

More likely, however, it is that the snakehead fish used now is farmed and tastes milder.

Otherwise, it was a comforting dish. The broth, still warm when it arrived on the dot, was in a paper bowl while the thick beehoon was in a separate plastic bag. The rice noodles had been poached in stock.

The serving was enough for two persons if you had other dishes such as the Prawn Paste Chicken ($17.34 for eight pieces). This was good, with a mix of well-marinated wings and drumsticks.

A hole was cut into the lid of the container to allow steam to escape, a thoughtful detail that kept the deep-fried chicken from going limp.

I also ordered something I had not tried at Ka-Soh before - Seafood KL Hokkien Mee ($9.84). The skinny yellow noodles were wrong, but understandable as the thick noodles from Kuala Lumpur are hard to find here.

Still, it was a good attempt with the dark sauce giving the dish an inky flavour I find very moreish. Braised with fish slices and prawns, it also had bits of deep-fried lard. Unfortunately, they were not crisp.

Go to ka-soh.com.sg. Minimum order of $30.

DELIVERY CHARGE

Depends on distance. I paid $10.

3 stars