I love those old-school eating places where they sell porridge…and with it, you have a choice of a whole lot of things displayed in those yellow enamel basins. You can pick the salted vegetables fried with slices of pork belly or the taugeh (bean sprouts) fried with salted fish, or the kangkong with pig’s blood or the chai po (dried radish) fried with egg and so on and so forth…and of course, they have a selection of salted eggs with alluring shiny, red yolks, century egg…or thick slabs of omelette…plus canned pickled lettuce, fried dace with black beans, salted fish, fried groundnuts and everything else. We used to have something like this at night at one of the stalls above the old Sibu wet market.
Unfortunately, there does not seem to be any around here these days and at best, we only have the stalls in the coffee shops selling pork porridge with/without century egg. Thus, for something of the sort, I would have to go to the restaurant at the Garden Hotel here…
…for RM10.00 ++ which I would say is rather expensive and the condiments are somewhat limited. I had that not too long ago and among those things that came with the porridge was a bit of tauju (fermented tofu)…
…which I would not touch but my missus loves it. She has a bottle in the fridge and everytime we have porridge at home, she would take it out and eat with the gruel.
Well, moving away from porridge, my daughter and I stopped by Balkis here the other day as she wanted the thosai…
She was a bit disappointed as they did not give the whitish yoghurt dip as they normally would but this was only RM1.50 a piece. Real cheap!
I had the nasi campur (mixed rice)…
…with prawns and sotong (squids) and I must say that I enjoyed that a lot.
That was a bit expensive though – RM6.00 but with the thosai and the drinks, the total was less than what I paid for the porridge at the hotel.
I guess, in view of the rising prices of things these days, the next time I have a craving for porridge, I might as well just cook my own and everything else that I like to go with it.
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 
Last time the oldies used to say, ‘bo lui,chiak pek moi’ but I guess that is not the case nowadays isn’t it……won’t be surprised next time this will be known as gourmet dish :)!
It certainly looks like it – considering that it is served in a hotel restaurant and is so expensive as well. For that price, they should at least line the plate with nice pretty lace, even the paper imitation ones will suffice, not kitchen towels! NCAA (no class at all)! Tsk! Tsk!
Love porridge and tauju *its a must to go with porridge*. Wow the prawns yummy leh. My late papa would have porridge for supper every night without fail.Thosai is quite healthy not so oily compared to roti canai, my fav too. anything to do with Indian food Bananaz love em, probably becoz of the curry?
Eyew…..tauju!!! Not for me, very peculiar taste. LOL!!! My old landlord in the small rural town where I was posted in the 70s would have porridge every morning with an omelette…and maybe some pickled lettuce…and my landlady in Singapore too. I think that’s the standard breakfast among the Chinese in the past. Ya…my daughter loves thosai…and we only have that and bryani here, nothing else – other than roti canai and murtabak, of course.
wow, porridge at the hotel?
old school porridge ya, I think they still have those over at my hometown Penang.
Yes, I spotted one in the lane opposite Cititel Penang…and was drooling over it but it was around 3-4 p.m. then. I decided to go back later for dinner but when I got there at around 6 something to 7, most everything was already sold out! Tsk! Tsk! At what time do they eat dinner there? I also heard that there’s one very popular place – always crowded…even though the place looks like some abandoned shaded car park, really uninviting.
Hehe, penang folks mostly have early lunches and dinner.
Oh and also, the mentality of penangites are, the dirtier the eatery, but if a lot of ppl there, it’ll be famous. The clean food courts in shopping malls, nobody wants to touch. Lol
And the dirtier, the tastier…and the cheapest too! Will be in Penang again in April…and no prize for guessing what I’ll be doing there. LOL!!! 😉
Porridge…I prefer to cook myself, I can add any kind of vegetable and meat inside, add century egg or salted duck egg,it taste even better.
Lastly add some Bovril….to make the taste of the porridge even tastier.
This morning, I jz cooked a pot of porridge for breakfast.
Yup…cheaper to cook your own but you do not have the choice of such a wide range of condiments.
😦 That is so true. Cook at home is cheaper… but not so much choices on the condiments. Mine is also usually limited to salted fish, salted eggs, salted beans and salted veggies. Dun have those other funny funny condiments…
I love the salted veg fried with pork belly…and the century egg…and steamed minced pork or tofu with salted fish also very nice.
The Balkis dishes look absolutely wonderful. Lucky Melissa! Is that Garden Hotel across from Sarawak House? It’s pretty old isn’t it? Went there a few times with a good friend, but that was years ago.
Yup…I’m sure for someone coming home from overseas,you will love Balkis. And yes, that’s the Garden Hotel…but they’ve renovated the place. It’s very nice and clean, very posh now…but they’ve increased the prices. 😦 Was nice and very cheap…when the place was not that impressive. That day, I noticed that they’ve not increased the prices…but the servings are getting smaller. SIGHHHH!!!!! 😦
Plain porridge with condiments,sounds like teow cheow porridge.. I am a Teow Cheow who don’t speak the dialect. Shame on me. Hahaha…
Well, I’m Foochow…but my Foochow dialect, tak pass one. I speak better Mandarin and I’m proficient in Hokkien. Yup…it is Teochew porridge all right. Imagine my delight when I saw a stall here (1st floor, Sibu Central Market) with a sign that says “Teochew Porridge” but it was closed that day. Went again on another occasion only to find that they’re selling pork porridge with a choice of egg, salted egg or century egg to add in it. So bitterly disappointed…
LOL… and I’m a nyonya…so it is forgivable that I dunno any chinese dialect? My entire family duzzin speak any Chinese dialect too…all BM and English, and my grandpa, he speaks Japanese…cuz he had to learn Japs during the Japanese occupation.
Nyonya tak pandai masak…ayam hangus jadi negro or masak CocaCola? Eyewwww….!!!! Muahahahahaha!!!! 😀
I’m a disaster as a nyonya. Hahahaha…
You’re telling me! 😉
come on…i love this kind of porridge too. Healthy and delicious. They called it the teochew style.
Yup…it’s Teochew porridge all right. Healthy? Not with the salted fish and the salted eggs and the pork belly… But I like! LOL!!! 😀
Bwhahaha… agree with Cikgu… delicious, yes. Healthy? Definitely not… the condiments are not exactly health food… salted fish, salted beans, salted eggs… salted veggies, u name it! LOL!
Ah well…you only live once. Anything and everything that is nice is not healthy. 😉
i love porridge too. if i at sarawak, i cook it for dinner every day without fail until my brother complain that he is bored liao.=_=
but porridge is so good. 🙂
i miss cooking porridge at home . tsk2
I love porridge too…and my daughter as well.
btw thosai here cost rm1 only…. me think here cheaper because many mamak stall kot.
Yup…probably. Not many Indians and mamaks here and that kind of food, turnover small…so have to pay more – you do not see many Chinese at that makan place, still not used to such food, I guess.
Here thosai is Rm0.80. Ohhh… I dunno thosai can be so expensive!
Here, Indians…two hands enough to count and in a town with some 80% Chinese (who are not very adventurous when it comes to eating), their business not so good lah. I can understand why the things have to be a bit more expensive…but I CANNOT understand why drinks in the always-crowded Chinese coffee shops must go up by 30 sen. It’s final – the news is out today. Bloody hell!!! Hope they will choke to death on their money…cilaka punya blood suckers!
plain porridge easy to cook la…just dump everything into it LOL
Plain porridge, mana ada dump everything in. Not like the Melayu’s bubur lambuk during puasa time.
Oooo… bubur lambuk. *drool* I like… but now kenot find. Hahahah… only bulan puasa have.
Not a fan. like everything throw in… I saw Chef Wan cook on tv, almost pengsan!
Teochew porridge? It cost a bomb here in KL. Plain porridge oni one small bowl oredi cost Rm4++, den not yet count the condiments. Better cook ourselves. 😦
So expensive? Gee! It’s ALL water – 1 cup of rice, can cook a cauldron! And if it’s RM1.00 for one little plate of condiment, it would come up to quite a lot then… Gosh! No longer a poor man’s meal, that’s for sure – now, a rich man’s feast! 😦
Ys… it’s THAT expensive. So I dun exactly fancy teowchew porridge…cuz I feel not worth it. Cook at home, more or less just the same… only less choices on condiments.
Last time when I was younger, it’s poor man’s food. My mum used to say… no money ma, so cook moy for us to eat. Can keep us full and duzzin need to waste so much rice. But now… eat porridge outside, like eat gold. 😦 Dunno y!
When I was young, everytime we had porridge, I would feel ill! Psychological – cos everytime we were sick, we would be fed porridge. It was much later…during my party days, when we would go for late night/early morning supper and eat porridge…that I got over it…
I’m back. Fermented tofu. Yum yum, I bought it 2 days ago. Waiting for the day, I cook porridge then I will eat it…sure make me add some more…
Back? Back in Sarawak or back in my blog? Whatever it is, nice seeing you around again. You just missed my post on the telur ikan terubok masin and the sago worms. LOL!!! Eeee…I don’t have the acquired taste for tauju. Some people used it to marinate meat and then fry – no, thanks. I don’t like the smell. Give me cincaluk anytime… LOL!!! 😀
I never did acquired the taste for cincaluk and tauju… give me belacan anytime. Hahahaha… but not cincaluk and tauju!
I did not like cincaluk before… Acquired the taste much later. Now, I love it!
STP, let me tell you… each time i take buffet breakfast in hotels, i normally go for porridge!! that is my favourite of all times…
Me too…but condiments very limited. Usually fried dace with black beans, fried ikan bilis/groundnuts, canned pickled lettuce and salted eggs.
Yes, those are my favorite dishes to go with porridge..fermented beancurd too!
Is it a women thing? All seem to love tauju…???
Melissa likes Thosai?! I like thosai too, here we have it with coconut chutney(the white dip) and puddina chutney, darn good!^-^
Hey, your mixed rice looks great! Next time belanja har?!;D
Oh? So that’s coconut chutney? Pudina chutney must be the green one then, mint chutney… All, not my cup of tea. I love pineapple chutney though… Always have that with banana leaf. Tastes like jam. LOL!!!
Pineapple one, I have yet try before leh… wonder whether I can get it here in K.L!
That’s what I always had when I went for banana leaf in Kuching. Very nice…always asked for extra. LOL!!! 😀
Eeee…cleffairy sebulu la with me. Nyonya pekat macam susu cap junjung. I can’t speak nor understand a single Chinese dialect…except all the bad and dirty words la (which by the way, everybody pun know kan).
I love porridge especially with the all the lauks…mui choy that cook berjam-jam lamanya and all the other stuff too. Even the tauju best. I keep a jar in my fridge also.Whenever I masak porridge with all the lauks,my long table tak cukup tempat…it will be full!!! But there is that other teochew porridge that looks like the rice sebiji-sebiji with water/soup and mince meat and what not..yucks! that I hate. Whoever invented that ought to be shot!!!
Ayoyo…itu Thosai banyak best!
Where got sebulu? She ah…name nyonya, cannot cook lah! Roast chicken also hangus, what more to say? Not like you…can cook so well – can’t wait to fly over to Auckland and stay a long long time there to eat all the nice, nice things that you cook. Stay one month long enough or not? Hehehehehe!!!
You love tauju too? Eyewwww!!!! I heard not too long ago, must not eat that…bad for health but my missus so degil, when eating porridge…simple has to have that and she eats it all by herself.
Ah yes! I’ve eaten Teochew porridge like that in Kuching. Just like rice, you rendam in clear soup and loosen the grains. Not nice lah, don’t like porridge like that.
wah RM10 for a porridge? that’s too expensive already. i boil for you la!
When? Hehehehehehe!!!! 😉
i love porridge, especially this type of porridge can choose the side dishes to go with it.
Here we still can find some coffee shop selling, they call it teochew porridge, with lots of side dishes to choose. My hub not really like it, so i hardly had it also. 😦
I went to a chap fan place, one of the coffee shops in front of Low Yat… Can have porridge there, and then you can pick from the dishes available. Had it once, not bad…