For most Asian, whenever we decide to take porridge for dinner or lunch, the reason is because we want to eat something really light. Most of the time, with so many choices of dishes to go along with the plain porridge, we ended up eating heavy meal rather than light. As you continue to scroll down and see the pictures of the dishes that I ordered, you will see that having porridge in Singapore can be a glutinous affair.
I was invited to dinner by a friend who brought along the wife. We went to the food court in ABC Market near Jalan Bukit Merah and decided to have Taiwanese Porridge for dinner as they feel like eating something light. This is not the first time for me but is my first time to blog about it. I don’t think any of the cooks are from Taiwan and the dishes tasted local for me. I don’t really care for the name but as long as the food is good, they can name their stall whatever they like.
This is how the plain porridge looks like. Is just basically rice cook with more water. This stall added some sweet potatoes into the porridge. Not sure if it really makes the difference.
Is so easy to over order as the dishes comes in small portions. They have the menu ready and also provide you with a list whereby you tick or check on any dishes that you fancy. When it comes to ticking the list ( pencil provided by the store ), I am pretty fast at it as I know what dishes I like. It reminded me of my early school days when I did not study for my exam and I would be doing the same for my multiple choice answers papers.
This is a must have for me. Fatty pork cooked with preserved vegetables. The flavor is really good and the meat is really soft and tasty. The saltiness of the preserved vegetables blends really well with the plain porridge.
Bean sprout stir fried with salted fish. Also a must on my list whenever having porridge.
My friend like this sizzling beef in hot plate. The beef is tender but I think is because they used tenderizer to soften the meat.
Chili clams that tasted a little bit like sweet and sour. Tasted pretty good but I think I would prefer it to be more spicy.
Sambal petai is a Malay dish that is adopted in many Chinese cooking in South East Asia. I still haven’t found the English name for this funky beans. I bet it probably doesn’t have an English name as the taste is bitter and leaves a foul smell in your mouth. Definitely not a white man friendly food. Girls who are fans of petai avoid these beans whenever they want to go out on a hot date. The worst part is these beans has a kind of chemical reaction to make you want to go do number 2 all the time in the toilet. If the ventilation of house is not good, everybody within the vicinity will know that you had the funky petai beans. Really can’t blame the white dudes for making fun of the eating habits of Asian people.
I like this minced pork steam with salted fish. If without the salted fish, I probably won’t like it. I think what makes this dish tasty is the salted fish. Not those really dried salted fish but a special type of salted fish that is slightly wet. If direct Chinese translation to English, this type of salted fish would be known as “Rotten Fragrance”. I have no idea if this makes sense to people who never tasted this type of salted fish. It really does smell like someone who never changes his running socks for 2 weeks. Another type of Asian food that is a big mystery to the white folks. Whenever they make fun of me, I will always counter them with their foul smelling cheese!
It cost us around 50 USD for the meal. Not exactly cheap for Asian food standard but sometimes the taste bud dictates us what to eat. I guess our “light” dinner turned out to be a heavy meal instead. Is not that hard to commit gluttony when you are Singapore.
It just took me eight minutes to reach the steps to go up to Mount Faber from my place. I haven’t been exercising for a long time but I was still determine to go all the way up and I have no idea what is in store for me.
