Ng Ah Sio Bak Ku Teh

Ng Ah Sio Bak Ku Teh
208 Rangoon Road Singapore 218453
Opens 7 am to 10.30 pm (closed on Mondays)
Chinese
$10-15 per pax (includes drink)
Efficient & Traditional
Kick-ass soup

      Sunday was the first time we ate at Ng Ah Sio, although we have attempted to reach there a few times before. But, it's situated in a rather obscure place or some obscure turn with mysterious short cuts, because ZM always manages to miss the entrance and we end up in Thomson.

    After a week of constant take-outs, I wanted to eat food with warmth. Somehow, I always equate the warmth of chinese cooking with double-boiled soups and bak ku teh. There's always a slight bitterness in these soups, that over the years, become a heart-ache that I nourish. Like the naggings from your mother or grandmother.

   There's a chinese saying 【貌言华也，至言实也，苦言药也，甘言疾也】.  I feebly understand it to be - the hollow falsehoods are like flowers, the deep truths are like fruits. The bitter truths are actually medicine, while the sweet moving words can become illnesses.

  Coming to Ng Ah Sio reminds me of faint glimpses of my childhood - the kettle at the side to boil tea, the small bowls of rice.  The fried youtiao (fried dough stick) that is always soggy, but strangely addictive with the sweet sauce and chilli. The waiters re-filling up your bowls with more soup with such force that you feel it's going to scald you at any moment. But it doesn't. Some places just remind you of the origin of things.

   On the other hand, the menus are laminated, there are jazzy decorations on the wall, it even has its own website. Perhaps, no one wants to eat in a place that really looks like yesteryear - but I love the small brown ceramic teapots in the glass cabinet, and even the no nonsense serving staff who calculate the cost of your meal on the spot.

   I ask ZM why he always insists on bringing me here, even though the bak ku teh is good but not brilliant. It's the soup, he says. It's not just one layer. Multi-layered? He is busy with his meal, but I persist. The soup is multi-layered? No, not multi-layered. So what do you mean? He just wants to eat his meal. He turns to me. There's a flavour that stays. In some other soups, it's there at the start then it's gone. In this soup, it stays with you. It stays.