Claypot Rice (without a claypot)

The husband had to work on New Year's Day, and I decided that I was bored enough to cook dinner for him and his team. I had some lovely lup cheong that I had not had the chance to use, and after googling for recipes with lup cheong, found a good one for Claypot Rice. Fortunately I had some really nice mushrooms too. These were gorgeous.
I bought shaoxing hua diao wine from Tianjin in this super cool bottle a couple of years ago. Fortunately it keeps forever.
I also wanted to do a roast pork in anticipation of CNY coming. Gotta practice. This was the lor bak marinade.
With black soy sauce that we had read from reviews was really good, which we found in Malaysia
Salting the pork skin to dry it out
Piercing the underside to make sure the marinade seeped in
Steeping it in and ready to dry out for a couple of hours
The mushrooms soaked and sliced. I kept the liquid for cooking the rice.
The lap cheong looking unhealthy before slicing
Even more unhealthy after slicing
I marinated the chicken thighs in a medley of oyster sauce, sesame oil, shaoxing wine, sugar, pepper, soy sauce and a few ginger slices.
Fried the mushroom lapcheong chicken mixture for about 5 mins on the stove, before putting it on top of the rice in the rice cooker.
And blanched some kailan to assuage some of the guilt
Had a pot of watercress pork rib soup on the side
2 hours later, the pork was done : )
I mixed the chicken mixture into the rice, and let it cook for about 20 mins more, with chicken stock and some of the mushroom water.
The final product, albeit in a plastic container.
I tried some myself and it was pretty good, I have to say! Next stop, Sia Huat for a claypot : )

Claypot Rice and Tang Yuan

Working in Tanjong Pagar is great with plenty of good cheap food around. The only challenge is finding a place to sit. Yesterday my makan buddies and I decided to walk to Chinatown for lunch at the recently-renovated food centre at Chinatown Complex.

There's a claypot stall tucked away at a corner on the second floor that is usually extremely crowded. It was fairly quiet yesterday, maybe because it was Monday. My husband and I had tried to eat there on 2 occasions a few months back, but had given up because they were too busy one time, and because they had run out the other time.

They cook the rice with all the condiments on these stoves.

CAN YOU SEE THE STEAM??? It was such an adventure when the claypot was brought over to our table, and when the stall server opened the lid.

Closer look sans steam. They have chicken pieces, lap cheong, veggies, fatty pork slices and bits of salted fish scattered randomly. They also give you black sauce to add as liberally as you want.

The mixed rice. Super yummy. Even better were the charred bits of rice at the sides of the claypot.

If you're after dessert, there's a famous tang yuan shop just a few feet away.

Not cheap at $2.50 a bowl, but it's enough to make you happy : )

Zhao Ji Claypot Rice, Stall No. 02-53

Open from 11.30am onwards, closed on Wednesdays

Hai Seng Ah-Balling 海星 Stall No. 02-59
Open from 12pm on, closed on Mondays

Both stalls are at Blk 335 Smith Street, Chinatown Food Complex