Best Porridge in Singapore/Ziggyboi

There are generally 2 types of porridge in Singapore, the Cantonese or Hong Kong porridge that comes with some meat like pork, chicken or fish, and century egg. The other would be the Teochew porridge, which is boiled with sweet potato, it is watery and more like rice submerged in water.

The Cantonese porridge comes in individual bowls with all the ingredients in it. Teochew porridge would be more like a mixed rice stall. You can opt for rice or porridge at the stall, then pick from a range of dishes available and displayed.

Jojor Road Boon Kee

Tiong Shian

Xian Ji

Wen Kiang Kee

Chef Leung

Zhen Zhen

Porridge

Mar 2021

Currently my favourite porridge stall, good to call and place order when on the way there

Not sure how I missed this place the first time I was at this coffee shop, which probably has the longest Q per square inch. It has Victor Fried Chicken rice, Jin Xi Lai Bak Chor Mee, and this, side by side. Q is only visible for the chicken rice; Boon Kee gives you a piece of paper with a number which they’ll display when it is your turn like at the banks; and the BCM gives you a buzzer. Each Q is about 30-40 minutes during a typical weekday lunch.

This time round, here for the BCM, I noticed that many other customers were having porridge instead of the BCM, or the chicken rice. I got curious and gave it a try.

Gosh, it was one of the best porridge I’ve eaten. Maybe I’ve been deprived lately but the porridge was of a great texture, I like it this way while some others like it really smooth. It was sticky and full of goodies for $4.50 (with century egg plus an egg).

Without adding any of the soy sauce or pepper provided, I liked it and found it very tasty, with a unique bland yet deep taste about it. Happily announcing it to my friends, urging them to give it a try. One said he found it tasteless. Did I miss something? I tried again, this one bowl for us 4 to share (no, we weren’t going to play mah-jong after), and noticed that with each mouthful, first it was a little tasteless, then that deep satisfying bland yet deep taste kicked in. it was packed full of pork and egg. I’m sure those who find it a bit bland could use some of the soy sauce and pepper to spice it up… exactly what friend 3 did, he pointed at those spices when he heard friend 2 say it was tasteless… 🤣🤣

I will definitely put this as one of the better porridges around, especially for pork porridge, as the top porridge place off my head doesn’t serve pork anymore…

As the wait here can be up to an hour, it is best to call ahead to place your order as you start your journey here. They'll give you a number, when you arrive, tell them your number and you'll be served when it reaches your number. I didn't tell them I had arrived the first time I called ahead, they didn't prepare my order. The mode of operation is that they would not prepare your order if you did not let them know that you've arrived.

Johor Road Boon Kee Pork Porridge

638 Veerasamy Road (Yi He Eating House), s200638

630am – 2pm, closed on Mon

Chef Leong

Chee Cheong Fun, Porridge

Aug 2021

Deliciously Bland, tastelessly scrumptuous…

I will bet my bottom dollar on Chef Leung being from Hong Kong. The base taste for most everything here is “bland”. This is not a slight, just that it’s not like other local dishes where the taste is very strong.

We had the char siew and original chee cheong fun, and the pork rib with century egg porridge here. The porridge was hands down the most delicious. I couldn’t get enough of it!

The chee cheong fun or rice roll itself was soft and nice, came in thick rolls for us to enjoy layers of dense but thin rice rolls. The sauce was on the bland side, as were the rolls. The char siew could be of better quality too.

The plain roll was plain, and I was asked if I wanted sesame sauce on it. I ordered the plain one because the photos looked fantastic with drizzles of what looked like cheese, turned out it was sesame… the mother and son team that served me both laughed with me when I “complained” it wasn’t cheese…

With the thickness of the roll and the wonderful texture of the rice rolls, the plain roll was wonderful. Taste wise it was pretty normal, but texture wise it was wonderful.

Char siew roll

If you look carefully, you can see the sesame gravy on the rolls, light yellow in colour

The porridge came in a big bowl, burp. Spring onion and century egg pieces filled the tiny gaps of space not occupied by a two-fingered thick portion of pork rib and some prawns stuffed with seafood paste. They were generous with ingredients. Porridge was the typical Cantonese porridge that’s more watery with "mashed rice grains", it was typically bland, but I felt something as it was washing down the throat. Then the taste kicked in! It had a fantastic strong yet subtle aftertaste that seemed to be boiled into the porridge。 Thereafter, I couln’t stop downing it.

The pork rib was delicious and meaty, the prawns flavourful, slightly on the fishy side, likely from the seafood paste it was mashed with. It was uniquely one of the best bland porridge I have ever tasted!

Conclusion is that this is a chee cheong fun stall that serves better porridge than ccf. Don’t get me wrong, the rice roll itself was wonderful, I can imagine the hard work and skill required by Chef Leung to come up with this quality of rice rolls, and we should enjoy it, but I think there are better char siew ccf out there in terms of overall taste. The porridge, however, was excellent, one of the most enjoyable ones out there without a shadow of doubt.

Chef Leung’s Authentic Hand-Milled Rice Noodle Rolls

335 Smith Street, #02-096 Chinatown Complex, s030335

630am – sold out (around 1230pm), closed on Mon

https://www.facebook.com/chefleungcf/

Tong Shein

Porridge

Nov 2022

Nice fresh tasting porridge with a long tradition.

I have totally forgotten about this place until one day when a passenger’s appointment got cancelled en route to breakfast. She asked to recommend a place for breakfast, I suggested Chinatown and she thought of Tiong Shian. Oh, I got to come back and write about them!

Came alone and I ordered the fish belly porridge. Porridge was clear and lacked any basic taste, I had to keep adding soy sauce and pepper, but the fish belly was lovely. Fresh and chunky, it was very enjoyable, I definitely think this is the nicest fish belly (porridge) around, even if the porridge itself was not that great.

Had a pork and century egg porridge another day, we can definitely say that the porridge here is of the clear (and tasteless…) variety, very pure porridge. It would be fantastic place if you like your porridge clear. Pork was fresh and good, it was enjoyable and a good place for a bowl of nice clear porridge as the ingredients here are fresh and chunky.

Tiong Shian serves very pure clear porridge, providing ingredients that are fresh. If that's your cup of porridge, this is the place. As the ingredients are fresh and plenty!

Tiong Shian Porridge Centre

265 New Bridge Rd, Singapore 088745

8am – 4am, closed on Mon

ZhenZhen

Porridge

Aug 2020

Long standing porridge stall with Q’s as early as 7am!

Porridge that is so smooth and the rice grain so smashed it’s like a milk shake, without the milk. I have not tried taking it with a straw yet though….

You have a choice of fish, chicken and/or century egg with the porridge, raw egg in porridge additional option. I used to grumble to myself whenever I come here that they don’t offer pork with century egg porridge, the porridge of choice for most Cantonese, and I never thought chicken goes with porridge and fish is only good if it’s raw (which they used to sell but it has since been restricted).

To my surprise, the chicken porridge here is good, so is the fish. It is misleading for them to call it shredded chicken, which to me meant “pulled chicken” as in pulled pork sandwiches, the chicken actually comes in good bite sizes. The fish slices are smaller but thick, the century egg is abundant.

My $3 bowl of porridge had a good amount of ingredients in it. The money is well worth it on the accompanying dollop of mashed deliciously marinated vegetables, and I guess oil or lard. This I believe is what gives the porridge the supernatural taste! I remember eating and thinking this is just excellent and what makes it different from the others, thus earning its heavenly status in the makansutra list.

This fermented vegetables would be mixed with the porridge as we stir the porridge, like we usually would and infuse its taste all over, every spoonful of it will have it. I have not tried eating that alone but I’m quite sure it will be a little over powering on its own, but it definitely goes well when mixed with the entire bowl of porridge!

Definitely worth your buck here, abundant ingredient, there was so much century egg in my century egg and chicken porridge I wanted to return some to them!

Zhen Zhen Porridge

1 Kadayanallur Street, #01-54 Maxwell Food Centre, s069184

#01-54 530am – 2pm, closed Tue and Thu

XianJi

Porridge

Mar 2024

Delicious porridge with very fresh ingredients

One dinner with Uncle Tony who grew up in Tiong Bahru, he suddenly mentioned this porridge place had moved over from Tiong Bahru central to this place on the fringe of town. Got to be good for him to suddenly bring this up so time to give it a try.

Uncle Tony has excellent taste and a knack for knowing well known niche places, and Xian Ji is another. They moved from an old but famous coffee shop along Eng Hoon Street (across the alley from Tiong Bahru Bakery) to the current location 1.5 years back.

Without a menu of their porridge, I simply ordered a pork porridge with century egg. I always forget what they have, but the lady boss had always been patient and always listed the 3-5 types of porridge they offer. After I have placed my order, she asked if I wanted vegetables with my porridge, now that’s fresh, watercress, why not. Then asked if I wanted pork innards, why not again.

Good decisions Ziggy. Watercress added some crunch, and colour to the porridge, loved it.

Century egg, pork liver, small intestines and balls (minced balls, not the part of the body…) were in the porridge, all in good amount, plentiful. Pork liver cooked to perfection, not over-done, tender and fresh, went very well with the porridge, I’ve never enjoyed pork liver as much. Small intestines were brilliantly fresh, with a nice powdery texture. Balls were deliciously tender. They were good but the liver and intestines were so brilliant I found that I enjoyed those more, not my usual preferences.

The fish in their fish porridge were very fresh, the most important point for fish porridge, or of anything fish. Sliced thick, it was a voluminous bite and a delicious delight.

Porridge was a little on the watery side but extremely tasty. Well done! Run by a pair of elderly but friendly sisters, language would not be a barrier ordering anything here, I’ve heard them speak fluent Mandarin, Cantonese, English and Bahasa!

Type of porridge offered here include Pork (minced balls), mixed pork (liver, intestines and balls), pulled chicken, cuttlefish, sliced fish and fish head. Give it a try, remember to add watercress!

Xian Ji Porridge

107 Jalan Bukit Merah, #01-1820/1826 Tiong Bahry Orchid, Singapore

7am – 10am, closed on Mon

https://web.facebook.com/p/Xian-Ji-Tiong-Bahru-Porridge-%E4%B8%AD%E5%B3%87%E9%B2%81%E9%B1%BB%E8%AE%B0%E7%B2%A5%E5%93%81-since-1989-100057427360780/?_rdc=1&_rdr

Wen Kiang kee

Porridge

Oct 2023

Excellent porridge

This is quite a popular porridge stall, the wait can sometimes go up to more than 30 minutes.

On my third attempt, I finally liked it! It was a quiet day and after a bout of food poisoning, I wanted porridge and thought I’d give them another chance! Haha 😄

Must be a good day, I was first in Q, Q number 36 when the display was 35. Still it took a good 10 minutes before i got my porridge. It was nice of them to deliver it to me as I was sat right in front, some stalls would still expect you to get up and go to them….

This is a stall that really make sure they provide the best porridge. The owner was previously a chef at a prominent restaurant, taking over from a couple that retired after 50 years 5 years ago. They use 3 types of rice to make the porridge, a premium Thai rice, glutinous rice and pearl rice.

My order of fish belly came with condiments when my previous orders of their signature and pork and century egg didn’t. The condiments of fried pork lards, shallots and some cooking oil made the porridge taste delicious. Previously they were a little bland without it.

I later found out that they would usually ask before serving if we want to add the pork lard, as some people would discard them, they usually don’t provide unless we specifically tell them to add. That’s why I didn’t get any…. Hint, ask for it if you’re here! Unless you’re happy with some pretty blandish porridge.

The fish belly had quite a lot of thick long bones in it, though the belly was fresh, fleshy, tender and juicy, the bones were a bit troublesome, think I’d go for the fish slices instead. You can tell I’m the lazy sort….

The pork slices with century egg, and their signature porridge came alive with the added condiments. Otherwise, they had very good and fresh ingredients, which I liked a lot, the porridge had a basic delicious taste but it was just a bit bland for the south east asian taste, lacking the punch. And I can tell what was lacking was the condiments. Now I know what needs to be done!

Interestingly, the guy sat next to me sipping his beer kept smiling at me when he returned to his seat after being away for almost half an hour, then he started giving me tips on how to enjoy a bowl of porridge. I have to just give it a quick stir to mix the ingredients, which may not even be necessary. After that, just pick ingredients off the top with the spoon, then pick porridge from the side of the bowl. Try not to stir the porridge too much or it would just liquefy becomes watery. Ya… that’s why I always ended up with water!

Turns out he was the owner of the stall! Thanks for the tip boss!

Note that they also serve frog porridge.... which I have yet to try, and doubt I would... 😅😅

Wen Kiang Kee Porridge

335 Smith St, #02-082, Singapore 050335

730am – 1pm, closed on Mon

https://web.facebook.com/WengKiangKeePorridge/?_rdc=1&_rdr