Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Zhen Zhen Porridge, Maxwell Food Centre

Fish Porridge

For some reason, I got the fish version today rather than pork variety that they are known for, but nonetheless, these guys at stall #54 do have a pretty good porridge, where rice has been stewed so long that they are not even in grains anymore, but rather one thick sludge. I was a bit disappointed to find that part of the flavor of this porridge depended on those little brown salted vegetables on top (and I was surprised to see how crudely the scallions were cut here), but those didn't really matter in the end, as it was still pretty darned tasty.

Be prepared for the Porridge Nazi here though; the grumpy lady shouted at me today and didn't even make eye contact throughout the entire transaction. I guess it was a rather amusing change from the guy down at Ho Kee.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

LOL. Porridge Nazi's my distant relative.

Seriously speaking, Zhen Zhen is better than Ho Kee in terms of taste and freshness of ingredients. And I am not biased. Another family member of hers has a porridge stall at first floor of Amoy hawker centre nearby. I love his pig innard porridge, which is the only place I will have innard in porridge. Try if you like.

Anonymous said...

The reason why the porridge is one thick sludge is because they use broken rice instead of whole grains to cook. Cantonese style versus the watery whole rice grains in teochew style. Looks pretty tasty!

Anonymous said...

sometimes they actually put the porridge into (fruit) blenders to mash all the whole rice bits up.

Shilpa said...

Oooh, thanks for the tip! I always go to Maxwell whenever I go back to S'pore, so this is good to know! As for the sludge, I believe some rice flour goes into it as well.. Love your blog, eatbma!

SuperOreoGirl said...

hey .... if you like porridge, I'll recommend "Chai Chee Porridge" at Block 85, Bedok North Street 4 .... try the pork porridge .... thick and yummy! be prepared to wait like 20 mins for your bowl of porridge though. :)

The Plumber said...

My first time leaving a comment!

I live in Tanjong Pagar and really enjoy your takes on my neighbourhood grub.

As for porridge, my vote goes to the stall operating along the same row as Tian Tian chicken rice run by a middle age couple. I've forgotten its name though. It is diagonally opposite that famous ondeh ondeh stall. They are super busy and shut by 10.30am, so if you're ever early for work, do check them out!