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
15 comments:
am happy with any kind of porridge with minced pork and yew char kway... :)
Hi I would like the recommend the Tiong Bahru Porridge stall which is located either at the Bukit Timah Market or Tiong Bahru Market!It's a bit pricey but its great to have as a comfort food.
Other:
-Tom Yum Soup at Golden Mile Food Centre ( located next to the Belgium Waffle stall) or Authentic Thai Tom Yum Soup from a thai shop located opposite the Tiong Bahru Market.
*sorry I'm quite vague in details.
:D:D
I really love this place! Maybe it's a bit grainy yes (I like my Mum's Cantonese style porridge too..) but it's really and they are not stingy with the ingredients. (:
Yeah i like this porridge lol cause its just downstairs only :)
This is the type of texture I ate growing up in a Hainanese family. And can u imagine my HK husband's shock when he ate my congee for the first time??!!!! Now he is used to it..... no choice mah!
sry out of topic ...but jus wanna ask u ppl if u guys noe of any place that sell woa kueh...("bowl kueh")
Maybe you wana try the Chai Chee Porriage at 85 Bedok North Road Hawker Centre. it's good.
The food pyramid is out-dated and based on economics.
Woa Kueh can be found in one of the coffee shop in Jurong east central. Not bad even thou not authentic enuh la.
The best porridge i had was near princep street.. but i doubt it is there anymore. The last time i ate it was when i was still in school... and the owner is the father of my sister's classmate. I can't even remember her name now.
Dear Anonymous,
my fren was waxing lyrical over the Chai Chee porridge at Blk 85, I MUST go and try it out for myself, because both my fren and I are not porridge ppl. so for her to b so enthusiastic bout porridge really says sth bout the Chai Chee porridge. :)
Porridge is actually sth I only eat when i'm sick. It's not even comfort food for me- i eat it cos i hv no choice when i'm not well.
Do let us know if it is really that good!
For the best experience at this Johor Road Porridge, you need to order the $3 portion of the mixed pork porridge (with egg) and THEN add an additional Century Egg (for $0.50), PLUS one plate of YouTiao ($0.50..I think)... and there you have it... the ULTIMATE PORRIDGE WORKS!!! Guaranteed so shiok and so full that you can hardly work in the afternoon.
Went down to check it out on sunday(2Dec07). Being half hainanese/cantonese I am torn between these 2 different varities of porridge, the cantonese style is silky smooth but somewhat lacking in ingredients (usually lean meat, century egg, crackers you use for yu-shang raw fish salad, and dash of spring onion). But behind the scenes the cantonese porridge base requires a lot of work cos those really good ones use stock to cook their porridge, thats why even with little ingredients, their porridge tastes so flavourful.
For the hainanese porridge, the taste comes form the ingredients thats added into the porridge, so what you see is what you get. The ingredients are so plentiful it reminds me the days of yesteryear where most hawkers then were generous with their ingredients. I need not count the ingredients cos it just overwhelms me when I stir the porridge to break the egg. The porridge taste really old school hainanese porridge and its a rare find in now modern singapore.
For those who think Chai Chee Porridge at Blk 85 Bedok North Rd is good, you should give this stall a try and immediately it pales in comparison.
For those who think that porridge is just food you take when you are sick, this porridge perhaps might change your mind, its defintely comfort food for me and will defintely head on there on a regular basis for my porridge fix.
Doc, porridge doesn't make the list cos there are now hardly any good porridge to rave about, many have the mis-conception that its food for the sick or sickly. Hainanese take it as staple food, perhaps too few hainanese reading this site?? so far only VB speaks up whenever there is hainanese food invloved.
Anyways the opening hours are from 6.45am to 3.30pm. Think they are closed on weds. Those thinking of going there for dinner/supper please re-schedule.
TAG
Fanatic n Tag's comments urged me to try it myself. I ordered the fish with cuttle fish n add Yew char kuay. Wah heaven. As Fanatic mentions the $3 is worth it with generous fish n cuttle fish.My wife ordered the Liver n minced pork and she likes it too.
Btw, Chai Chee Porridge is also good and it is difficult to compare as I tried this Johore Rd stall for the first time.Only complain is that Chai Chee is getting expensive.
Another Porridge stall which you want to try is Wong's Porridge at Bedok South FC at Blk 16.The Liver there is very good.
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