The good old humble rice porridge or congee made its way into american fast food restaurants. There is chicken (what else!) porridge breakfast meal sold for $3.60 at KFC that includes a cup of coffee or tea. If you buy ala carte the porridge cost $2.60. A good hearty breakfast to start your day. At some KFC outlets you can surf for free too while having your brekky.
At Long John Silver you can also get porridge set complete with two half-boiled eggs for $5.20. Half-boiled eggs are usually part of
kaya toast set, but still delicious to be mixed with congee as well. It is certainly a great way to start your day by having a hot comfort soft meal of porridge or congee with generous amount of nicely smelled fried shallots sprinkled on top of it. Black soya sauce and pepper are optional, but a bit of soya sauce is a must for many, to give some added taste and zest to otherwise bland-looking dish.
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Breakfast porridge at KFC
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You can get one for only $1.80 at Old Chang Kee, which is good as a take-away meal to be eaten at home or in the office. Porridge can just be a simple plain type or added with fish, chicken, boiled peanuts or fried char kway. There is even the kampung (village) porridge version which includes peanuts, anchovies, kangkong (water spinach) and salted egg. There is also beef congee, though this is not so common and tend to be served at restaurants and it also costs a bit more.
A bowl of rice porridge or congee typically sell for $3 to $4 at
hawker centres or foodcourt but the quantity is a bit more compared to the breakfast deals at KFC or Old Chang Kee as these
food court or hawker centres porridges are more suited for lunch, even dinner. Yes, even though it is a bit unusual, people do eat congee for lunch and occasionally for dinner. At KFC, the rice porridge comes with chicken, obviously.
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| Congee with peanuts and char kway |
Old Changi Kee porridge comes with boiled peanuts and char kway. Other chain cafes like Wang have added porridge to their menu and it is sold all day long just like
kaya toast set.
Bubur kampong (literally village porridge) as already mentioned usually comes with anchovies,
kangkong (tropical spinach
) and salted egg
, which are sold at some Malay stalls. One of the places where you can find bubur kampung is at
Bedok Corner.
It is such as a simple yet comforting dish that some restaurants have added porridge or congee in their menu and a set meal with drink and appetiser is less than $10. Even if we eat at upmarket restaurants sometimes all we want is the good old comfort food congee.
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| Congee with beef and egg |
Other types of porridge include green beans and red beans porridge, but these are usually eaten as desserts, not as meals. You can find green or red beans porridge at many desserts stalls at
hawker centres and food-courts. Even
durian can be made into porridge. There is a Malay dessert called serawa durian also known as pengat durian, dipped with glutinous rice. Very yummy.
By the way, the term congee usually refers to rice porridge. We can say the good old quacker oats or any types of grains boiled with water and sometimes added with milk or cream is also a type of porridge or congee.
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