There is a popular fish soup stall at Jalan Beseh food centre (off Jln Besar) that I'd like to blog about today. very trivial, but personally disturbing.

I came to know about it a few years ago when the food centre was still in its old dilapidated state. The stall was (still is) very busy and the queue would snake around the aisles. Back then, its fish and seafood soup were fresh and tasty.

After the renovation, probably the long break gave the boss lots of time to read some business strategy books, they came up with uniforms, or at least uniformed aprons, new crockery, and new menu. They decided to streamline its production and reduce product offering to just fish soup. They don't entertain "take-away" meals anymore, and will charge 50cents if you wish to have another small saucer of chilli.

As is most food stalls, the plague of its own success is the fall in quality of the food. The soup and the fired fish are very saltish nowadays, even though the rice and chilli sauce still maintain their high standards.

Actually, this I can live with, to satisfy my occasional craving.

What irks me most is their drop in service level.
They have an assistant (a short and plump woman) who simply is not suited for the service industry (to put it bluntly, she makes me feel like I owe her money).

There is this particular incident which turned out to be the last hay that broke my fat back (it takes a lot to break it mind you). After collecting my food, with both hands supporting the tray of bowls of hot soup, I was ready to walk away to take my seat nearby. I realised that I forgot to take an extra pair of chopsticks and soup for my wife (who was sharing). So I politely asked the assistant (the one whom I owe money to) for help. Before her, 9 out of 9 times I asked a hawker for help on something, there were no problems. On this 10th time, to my astonishment, she stared at me and later pretended she didn't hear me.

I was, truth be told, quite unaccustomed to such outright rudeness and indifference. I stared at her too, trying to figure out if she was serious. So we were just looking into each others' eyes for a few seconds (a different kind of spark flew).

In my disappointment, I was looking for a table to put down the tray, so as to free up my hands (no, not to slap her). before I could do that, the boss' daughter, maybe sensing my simmering anger, finally helped put an extra pair of chopsticks and a spoon on my tray.

I was very pissed off. Afterall I have been patronising them for years....why have they fallen so far so fast? Not only was the soup saltish, it had also left a bitter taste in my mouth.

The positive side is that the kopi stall next to it serves good coffee, fresh and well-toasted bread, near-perfect half-boiled egges, and has a very friendly owner.