Chai Chee Pork Porridge: This Teochew Ah Hia actually prefers Hainanese porridge!

Ah, an anonymous reader quipped that being Teochew I only liked the grainy kind of porridge. Not true, not true. My favourite kind of Jok is actually the Hainanese style one which has broken grains in it. I guess it might be something I grew up with. I remember eating Jok almost every Sunday morning with my Dad when we were still living in Toa Payoh lor 8 and it was this kind of Jok. Best thing was that there was a You Char Kway stall in the same market were this old man used to sell 10 for a dollar. Happiness is dipping a freshly fried You Char Kway into hot porridge!



For me, I like my porridge with lots of savoury minced pork balls which have been well seasoned with sesame oil. So the porridge here certainly hit the right buttons in my books. The porridge was nicely flavored which, according the the aunty is attributed to long hours of cooking with the best pork bones a hawker can buy. 4.25/5

Since we are talking about porridge, can I ask our readers what you usually do with the egg? Do you break it, leave it to cook or leave it out entirely?

Conclusion

Great bowl of porridge with savoury minced pork that hits the spot when you need something to warm the tummy on a cool night.

Chai Chee Pork Porridge
FengShan Food Centre
Bedok Blk 85
Opened till late

Zhen Zhen Porridge: Silky Smooth

I finally managed to eat the famous Zhen Zhen porridge!

The distinctive feature about this porridge is that they cook the grains until it has all but dissolved. Lots of people actually rave about this porridge and even they even got 6 chopsticks from Makansutra which is full marks. I was however a little ambivalent about it as I felt it was almost like eating a bowl of thickened cream soup.



Granted, for $3, you actually get a chockful of ingredients in the porridge. I ordered the mixed porridge which had pork, slice fish and century eggs. It is really value for money and the fish was very fresh. But I have to admit that I still prefer my porridge to have a few grains in it. Nonetheless it is certainly a very unique bowl of porridge which is well worth a try. 4/5

Conclusion

Good bowl of porridge but I don't think that I am all out sold on the idea of cooking the rice till it all dissolves. Too much like eating pure starch to me.

Zhen Zhen Porridge
Maxwell Road Food Centre
Stall 54
5.30am to 2.30pm
Closed Tuesdays

Teochew Rice and Porridge: Our Teochew Ah Hia's Pick

There's no doubt about it. Teochew porridge is comfort food especially if you are a Teochew Ah Hia. And even more so if you are a sick Teochew Ah Hia. Our resident Teochew Ah Hia, Damien was just recovering from a cold that day so he insisted that he needs to take some Teochew porridge from one of his regular stalls at Maxwell. Knowing Damien, this Teochew porridge's standard must be quite good.



Most of the dishes he ordered were the staple steamed squid, handmade fishcakes, braised pork belly. They were all very good but the one that really caught my attention that day was the Sambal Shark's meat. This was the first time I am eating this and was pleasantly surprised and just how tasty shark's meat can be. This is the kind of dish that goes really well with plain porridge. It coats your mouth with all the tasty goodness that just begs to be washed down with piping hot porridge. 4.25/5

I just wonder: If shark's meat is so nice, why is it that not many more people actually sell it?

Conclusion

Considering how cold the weather has been, I am sure that many are yearning for a nice piping hot bowl of porridge and here is certainly one place where you can go and get your Teochew Porridge fix.

Teochew Rice and Porridge
Stall 98 Maxwell Road Food Centre
10.30am to 8.30pm

Johore Road Boon Kee Pork Porridge: Hainanese Porridge is Not Smooth one!

So when do you all eat porridge? Do you treat it as a comfort food or is it something that you gather all you makan kakis and plan an outing to? I suspect it is the former.

I always feel like a bowl of porridge when I am not so well or when I have overeaten and are just feeling a little bloated and just want something light. Never have I craved for porridge as much as I do with Hokkien Mee or Satay. It is no wonder porridge never made it to the top ten list of Hawker foods. It received so few nominations that it might have been last on the list!

But a good bowl of porridge is comfort food when you need it most. And speaking of porridge, the different dialect groups have their different ways of preparing it. The Teochew like it whole grain with lots of water, the Cantonese like it really smooth and, in the case of this stall, the Hainanese like it sort of somewhere in the middle.

This 30 year old porridge stall in the Jalan Besar is your typical Hainanese style porridge where the rice grains are sort of grainy. Almost too grainy, I thought, being used to eating more of the Cantonese style congee nowadays. But the flavour is robust and for $2.50, there are lots of ingredients in each bowl. 4/5

Conclusion

It's good but I would have liked it better if it were not so grainy. Then again, I am no Hainanese, so I might not know better.

Johore Road Boon Kee Pork Porridge
Blk 638 Veerasamy Road
#01-101
62969100

When do you waste your calories on Yukky Food?

When you are in hospital and don't have a choice, that's when!

Last week has been a difficult week for me to say the least. I was admitted to hospital for an operation to remove my gallbladder. Technically, it is called a Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy. In layman terms, it means to remove the gallbladder through keyhole surgery.

In retrospect, I probably had the problem with gallbladder stones for a few years already. I have had to rush to hospital on a few occasions in the past with severe tummy ache which I always attributed to food poisoning.

So how come this Doctor could not even diagnose his own condition? Well, it's the furthest thing on my mind since gallbladder stones, as traditionally taught in medical school, usually occurs in "Fair, Fat, Fertile, Females in their Forties". Now I don't qualify for any of that, so how the heck did I end up with gallstones?

Anyway, having "chronic cholecystitis" meant that because of the intermittent blockage, the whole gallbladder had become inflamed, which meant that I had a sense of prolonged fullness and discomfort especially after big (and fatty) meals. So here comes my confession. When I go on my food tasting trips, that is precisely what I do, I only taste the food. I don't usually overeat or else I get bloated for the rest of the day! Thankfully, I have my makankakis to always help to eat up the food!

So anyway, now that I am fixed, thanks to my good friend and surgeon, Dr S K Wong from Digestive Health Associates, I look forward to more makan escapades. Though this time round, I have to be really careful, or else I will really be putting on the kilos since I don't have my diseased gallbladder to stop me from eating too much!

So thanks for continuing to read the blog even though it has slowed down for a little while. I do have a backlog of food places and I will continue to publish as regularly as I can. And if you have been having problems with your digestion, and happen to be a "Fair, Fat, Fertile, Female in her Forties", may I encourage you to visit your GP and get an Ultrasound of the gallbladder done. Those darn little gallstones can really cause a lot of problems!

And yes before I forget, let me comment on the hospital fish porridge which was my first meal after surgery. With all due respect to the hospital cooks, it really wasn't their fault that I could not order lamb chops which I am sure would be quite good -- the fish porridge was Bleeeeaaachhh!! 1/5

Bukit Merah View Teochew Porridge: Will the Real Teochew Ah Hia please stand up?

With FashionFoodie, smart, liverpool, tag, iwatch_ueat and damien


Today was the day I found out I did not qualify to be a True Blue Teochew Ah Hia! Oh, don't misunderstand me. I am pure bred. Both sets of Grandparents came direct from Swatow. However, I failed the ultimate test of the Teochew Ah Hia. I failed to appreciate freshly steamed Peh Dou Her (Rabbit Fish).

My idea of a perfect Teochew porridge lunch was porridge with stuff like Chye Poh (preserved veg) Omelette, Braised Pork, Sliced Lup Cheong (Chinese sausages) and Braised peanuts. But I found out that that only qualifies me to be an entry level Teochew Ah Hia. The True Blue, Hard Core, Fair Dinkum, No Play Play Teochew Ah Hia loves stuff like steamed Peh Dou Her, steamed mullet and steamed baby squid dipped in Tau Jnior (fermented bean sauce) and chilli.


Peh Dou Her (Rabbit Fish) $4 each

Peh Dou Her is especially prized during the Chinese New Year period when they are about half the size and full of roe. Teochew Ah Hias like Fashionfoodie tell me that the stomach is bitter and when taken with the roe, it is supposed to bring you to the heavenly Swatow. (Area where the Teochews come from)

Here is where I failed. I never did like all the steamed fish that my parents love. In fact it was the fishiness of fish like Peh Dou Her that put me off steamed fish for most of my younger life. But I was game to see if my tastebuds are indeed as Teochew as I thought. Perhaps, as I get older, I might actually like fishy fish?

Not.

Even as the Teochew Ah Hias are attacking the fish with gusto, I found the fish to be too fishy for me. I tried my best but only finished a few mouthfuls. I guess it really is an acquired taste. So, are there many Peh Dou Her afficianados out there?

My rating would be 2.5/5 whereas the other guys rate it 4.5/5



Similarly with the steamed squid. My first bite of it was ok. But it wasn't something I would rave about. So I asked Fashiofoodie again just how to appreciate the dish. He told me that not many people can actually steam it until it was just so soft and tender. Ok. My rating 3/5, his rating 4.5/5.



I was told the beauty of these baby squids is that they are full of roe. Smart especially liked it and kept raving about it. Again for me, it was plain steamed squid. I still prefer it deeped fried till crispy with black sweet sauce. My rating 3/5, Smart's 4.5/5

Conclusion

So will you pass the True Blue Teochew Ah Hia test? My three Teochew Ah Hia friends certainly passed with flying colours. That's not to say that people of other dialect groups would not like Peh Dou Her, it's just that if you claim to be a Teochew Ah Hia, you should pass the Peh Dou Her test. Agree or not?

Bukit Merah View Economic Teochew Porridge
#01-377/379
115 Bukit Merah View
10am to 7pm
Closed on Sunday
Recommended by FashionFoodie

Lion City Frog Porridge: If Frog tastes like Chicken Why Pay More?

Kung Bao Frog: $8 per frog

Many people say that frogs taste like chicken. If that is so, why pay $8 for a frog when with the same amount of money you can actually buy quite a substantial amount of chicken meat? The Kung Pao sauce in this dish is really very delicious, but I can't help but wonder whether it would taste different if chicken was used in place of frog. I think you can see where I am coming from. I like this dish very much but for $8, I can only get a few tiny morsels of meat. How I wish there was such a thing as a Godzilla Frog with legs the size of a Chicken.



According to carnineviand, this unassuming little stall within a coffeeshop serves Singapore's no. 1 Frog Porridge. I am sure there will be others who will contest his confident proclamation. I must admit that a spoonful of the Kung Bao sauce with the porridge is quite a satisfying mouthful to sooth a late night crave. I find frog meat to be a little sweeter and the texture a little more delicate than chicken. But because there is so little of it, it is a dish one has to partake with the same attitude as Chicken Feet. I give it 4.25, but my two makankakis both give it 4.5/5

Conclusion

Great for a nightcap. Tasty morsels that don't really fill you up, satisfies your craving for umami and gives you a nice warm feeling in the tummy.

Lion City Frog Porridge
235 Geylang Road (Lor 9)
67468105
5pm to 3.30am daily

Hong Kong Porridge: No You Tiao Never Mind

What is the difference between Singapore Porridge and Hong Kong Porridge? You Tiao. You get no You Tiao in Hong Kong Porridge but instead you get these bits of deep fried crispy Bee Hoon which is really only for Pai Sui (For show only) cos a few measly sprinkling of bee hoon hardly does anything for the porridge.

That aside, I was actually quite happy eating the porridge here. I was first attracted to the stall because of the brown rice porridge that they served and the stall vendor was happy enough to let me try a spoonful of the brown rice porridge. Ok, its healthy stuff, but I was not so health conscious that day, so I opted for their normal porridge.

I was pleasantly surprised by the savoury smooth porridge. Ok, it may not be as great as Zhen Zhen in Maxwell Road FC, but somehow I was quite pleased with the taste. I also really enjoyed the wonderfully marinated pork slices which were tasty and quite addictive. Quite a satisfying bowl of porridge! 4/5

Conclusion

Its doesn't have the ooomph or wow factor, but it was certainly endearing.

Hongkong Porridge
Bedok Interchange Food Centre
Open 7am to 11pm