Best eats: Taiwan porridge with pork belly and fresh steamed cod in Joo Chiat
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Best eats: Taiwan porridge with pork abdomen and fresh steamed cod in Joo Chiat
In this week's installment of Makan Kakis series, GOLD 905 DJ Denise Tan heads dorsum to the East for some familiar condolement nutrient at Former Place Seafood Taiwan Porridge.
GOLD 905 DJ Denise Tan tries Old Identify Seafood Taiwan Porridge's yummy spread of comfort food in Joo Chiat Place. (Photo: Denise Tan)
05 Dec 2022 06:30AM (Updated: 10 Jul 2022 08:40PM)
Every bit Singapore'due south conditions gets wetter and cooler, we instinctively first seeking out meals that serve upwards maximum warmth and comfort. And nil says, "Hello, monsoon flavour," better than a steaming bowl of porridge.
Any excuse, really, for me to endeavor out a porridge identify in the E recommended by my Gilt 905 Makan Kaki and possessor of Awfully Chocolate, Lyn Lee. And this seven-year-old stall in a no-frills Joo Chiat java store delivered on 2 counts: Warming Taiwanese-manner porridge and the comfort of freshly prepared, home-mode dishes.
At Old Place Seafood Taiwan Porridge, the concept was simple. Free-flow porridge came at S$i per head and you lot paired information technology with your choice of meat, seafood and vegetable dishes. The piping hot porridge was bulked up with chunks of sweet white potato – the perfect plain base for a menu that boasted over 30 dishes to choose from, well-nigh of which are cooked a la minute.
Excited past the prospect of freshly prepared food served hot, straight out of the kitchen (I confess I don't like eating my food cold), I knew exactly what I wanted. I immediately homed in on the classics I've been eating since I was a child – and was delighted to find from chef-possessor Yong Wee Hiang that these classics besides happened to be their signature dishes.
Within minutes, he and his business partner, chef Chua York Foo, whipped up a veritable feast for ane. The table was covered with steaming plates of chye poh (savoury preserved radish) omelette, mei cai kou rou (steamed pork abdomen with preserved mustard greens), bean sprouts with salted fish and steamed cod.
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The latter was a revelation and explained the "seafood" in the stall's name. Merely put, the fish was perfection. Steamed then sauced, the smooth, slippery, firm mankind flaked beautifully with a gentle touch of my chopsticks. The savoury soy-based sauce had a hint of sweetness that played well with the pure gustatory modality of the fresh cod.
A ring of cantankerous-hatched skin circled the fish with a layer of fatty richness that was enhanced by a smothering of deep-fried chye poh. This crispy topping of salted radish $.25 was an irresistible contrast of flavour and texture to the oily, almost creamy cod in its gelled coat and saucy bath. I couldn't scoop up fish and sauce to mix with my porridge fast enough.
Coriander and julienned carrot added another dimension of freshness and crunch. At S$27 a portion, the cod was considerably pricier compared to the other dishes, but I would be willing to pay for such quality, especially if shared.
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Chye poh omelette (S$5) was an iconic accompaniment to plain porridge and theirs was a sight to behold: A bronzed disc resembling a thick pancake. A crisp, golden-brown exterior yielded a fluffy yellow interior to probing chopsticks.
Information technology would require some mad wok skills to create such a perfectly-shaped masterpiece, but clearly not a problem for both chefs who take over twenty years of culinary feel between them. This omelette didn't but wait good, it tasted great, as well. Its smell was alluring, with an underlying butteriness and the perfectly cooked egg was studded generously with the umami-packed chye poh.
Information technology's so good that I'd exist happy just to consume this omelette on its ain for breakfast, simply dipped in its sweet-and-sour chilli sauce. Nonetheless, when paired with a spoonful of porridge, the tastebuds hummed from the combination of flavours and textures. The make clean gustation of the porridge balanced well with the well-baked-outside-tender-inside egg, as well as the little bursts of salt and crunch from the chye poh.
Some other iconic porridge pairing was mei cai kou rou (S$half dozen) – preserved mustard greens and pork belly were steamed till tender in a tasty gravy deepened and darkened with soya sauce with hints of aromatic 5 spice and Chinese wine. I enjoyed the wobbly layers of belly fatty with the sweet and salty mei cai that too exuded a unique hint of herbaceous bitterness.
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Chef Yong told me that one of their all-time sellers was their signature bean sprouts with salted fish (S$6), a deceptively simple dish that was done admittedly right here. Fat bean sprouts, red chilli slices and jump onion were wok-fried in a flash to retain their well-baked juiciness. Bits of salted fish permeated the veggies with actress flavour and intense fragrance of the sea. The funky saltiness of the fish was mellowed by the porridge, making information technology some other ideal pairing.
Don't permit the proper name Old Identify Seafood Taiwan Porridge mislead yous – if porridge isn't your matter, you can opt for steamed white rice instead. This stall operated almost similar a zi char stall and is at its all-time when dining there family-style. Going in a larger group ensures you'll get to try more than of the dishes on their menu and for me, the biggest sell was that almost everything was cooked to order, and then the small plates all arrived piping hot and tasty.
Ultimately though, the ii stand-out, must-try dishes for me were the omelette and the cod. It'due south obvious that they handled their fish dishes extremely well and many customers also went for the deep-fried pomfret with black bean sauce (S$xix). I made a mental annotation to render for a gustatory modality of my favourite fish.
Another deep-fried favourite I shelved for my side by side visit was the crispy nam yu (fermented chilli bean curd) pork (S$8), which was a flavour-packed textural choice after all the soft, saucy, steamed and stewed delicacies.
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Simple, satisfying and warming for both stomach and middle, Sometime Place Seafood Taiwan Porridge served upwardly a meal of my childhood, along with a side of nostalgia. I slurped down some other spoonful of porridge and thought fondly of my grandparents – it tasted only like family unit dinners from a distant past.
Old Place Seafood Taiwan Porridge is located at 59 Joo Chiat Place, Singapore 427783. It's open for dejeuner 11am - 3pm and for dinner 5pm - 9.45pm. They close fortnightly on Wednesdays. Catch Makan Kakis with Denise Tan every Thursday from 11am on Gilt 905.
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Source: https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/dining/best-local-food-singapore-joo-chiat-taiwan-porridge-256561
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