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
16 comments:
Shark meat?
Then you have to try the LOR MEE in Tiong Bahru Market.
I think its called 188 Lor mee or something.
I cant remember but i'm sure the rest of the foodies will know the exact name.
The gravy is not too thick but just enough so you don't get jelak even after finishing the entire bowl.
AND the best part is the deep fried shark meat that goes with it.
the meat is tender and doesn't have too much of a fishy taste.
The batter used is excellent as well.
It's a MUST-TRY!
Ate at this place 2 weeks back not really impressed.The one at Teck Ghee Food Ctr is very good steam fish steamed severed hot and on whole very cheap and tasty.
Shark meat is not easy to cook...this is why it is either deep fried for loh mee or cooked with spicy ingredients.
Furthermore the meat is rather tough unlike normal fish.
Finally, the bloody smell that accompanied with the flesh is well known...(this is why a lot of crab catchers love using shark meat as bait!)
*shark meat is one of the cheapest meat around...sometime they are given free :)
From what I know. Shark meat gives off an ammonia smell if its not fresh hence not that popular locally. One dish my mum told me is an hokkien dish of fried shark or stingray with salted vegetables. Seems that in the past stingray was also a trash fish that was thrown away. Before we learnt how to make Sambal Stingray. Anyway sorry to hijack the thread but anyone know where the steamed shark head of Jackson Market went?
Adriane
This porridge stall not so bad, 4/5 for me. Fish is one important dish for Teochew porridge but usually the fresh steam fish.Being older I prefer porridge but not because I am sick!
I don't know if it's becos we're Teochew, we often have shark meat at home. It's usually fried with kiam chye or curry powder. Ever since I ate it cooked sweet/sour style (aka koo loo yoke) at a friend's place, we've also been cooking it in tomato ketchup at home too.
i tot usually dat dish is stingray.... if i'm not wrong they also call it sua hee.... so not to be mistaken as shark's meat....
Seriously not a big fan of teocheow porridge.. for i associate it with being ill.
hi foodsterho,
leslie had blogged abt e shark lor mee more than 1 year ago..
http://ieatishootipost.blogspot.com/2006/11/178-sharks-meat-lor-mee-tiong-bahru.html
Oh.. my dad simply loves shark meat.. he often buys it from the market and cook it in salted vegetables, salted black beans and chilli.. But I rather prefer steamed and simple stuff for my Teochew porridge..
Mamabook: Lemme guess.. you ain't a Teochew?
Hi mcsocker,
Just checked with the stall owner and it is indeed shark's meat.
He added that due to the similar texture, people usually misconstrue it as stingray.
mcsocker,
the sua hee you mentioned-that is teochew for shark. damien, the fellow is mistaken, shark meat is coarser than stingray but I prefer shark, many stalls I had come across tried to pass off stingray for shark meat to me. It is cooked the same way but the giveaway is the trapezoid shape and the many cartilages.
ieat, the main problem to preparing shark meat for cooking is the skin. It is abrasive. Look out for leopard shark if you want to cook it. I always go gaga and buy it.
just had dinner there. the shark dish is quite good. Fried with sambal, salted vegetables and black beans. The fish head (fried chopped up pieces) was good too. Steamed (or cooked) small squids was fresh. The long beans fried with sambal hay bi (dried shrimps) was also not bad.
"sua heer" shark meat is not sold in every fish stall in the market, selectively perhaps one or two and if you are late, nothing is left. I love sua heer and as Kalos said, you go with salted veg and black bean it's a very delicious dish by itself. Teochew eat the skin too but I dont know how to cook it.
Western style I cubed it and dipped in corn flour and egg batter and it's as good.
Taukwa really following the food trail in this blog.
I also like the Indian version of shredded dried shark's meat.
Saw frozen shark fillet at NTUC yesterday. Called Toothfairy to ask her mom to teach me how to cook it. She's a great teochew cook.
There's another Teochew porridge stall called Heng Heng at the middle row of Maxwell which I think is even better than this one. They serve a very unique salted fish tofu, hard to come by nowadays.
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