Monday, January 16, 2012

天记 Porridge at Maxwell Market

There's always been this stall where I see the operator packing and washing up when I arrive at Maxwell Market, no matter how early. The rest of the day and night, the shutter is down. I got curious and asked one of my older colleagues if they knew what it sold. Trust these wise old people, who wake up at 5am and come to the office by 7am, to know something good.

It's a porridge stall that opens at something like 4am, and they normally sell out by 7am. One time I arrived at 7.10am and the operator shook his head and me and said 卖完了. To satisfy my curiousity, one morning I proceeded to drag the poor husband out of the house at 6.45am (it was his fault that we missed the stall the last time) to make sure that we got there on time.
They sell pork or fish porridge, and the gruel mixture is soft, not too thick (I think Zhen Zhen is a rather negative example of thick porridge) and flavourful. It's easy on the tongue and throat.
The raw fish salad is pretty good too. Not too much ginger (think Zhen Zhen again), and a good mix of lime, soy and sesame oil dressing.
This cost me $7. I was very pleased with it : ) It's not the cheapest hawker breakfast, but it's good quality and $4 is a reasonable price for good raw fish salad.
I think this is worth waking up at 6am for, just not everyday.




It's on the same row as Tian Tian chicken rice, between the double-boiled soup stall and fruit stall. It's a fantastic alternative for my favourite porridge stall that unfortunately closed down last year : (

5 comments:

  1. Cheng Ji is closed?! I'm a great fan of their porridge. :(

    Is there any other porridge stall in Maxwell which sells similar watery kind of porridge like Cheng Ji and Tian Ji? Tian Ji closes too early, I can never make it on time. Not liking Zhen Zhen & Ho Kee's style, too thick & starchy and full of msg!

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  2. Only this one, I'm afraid. Alternatively, if you're willing to walk, the coffeeshop at the junction of Neil Road and Keong Saik Rd has a porridge stall that is similar to Cheng Ji, down to the watercress. But they're a little bit pricier, which means that a bowl of porridge which has watercress and egg, together with raw fish, costs around $10.

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  3. Yesterday I was really craving this and went to the Chinatown food centre at Kreta Ayer. Tried a stall at one corner with a 2-chopstick Makansutra rating. Ended up leaving half of it...it was terrible.

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  4. cool! Is this stall the one?

    http://crystalshong.blogspot.com/2011/06/awol.html

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  5. I can't tell! Hey, why don't you msg me one day and we can go there for lunch tog? (I'm assuming we actually work in the same building and that we actually know each other in real life...just not on this blog)

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