The well-known Rong Ji Chicken Rice & Porridge stall at Dunman Food Centre in Joo Chiat is run by an octogenarian couple who looked like they’ve been doing this forever. I didn’t have a chance to chat with them as the two worked with quiet, clockwork efficiency to serve a seemingly never-ending queue of customers. We were at the food centre for a couple of hours, and there was never a lull moment at their stall.
The old Hainanese couple moved here in 2018 from their earlier perch at Eng Seng kopitiam in Joo Chiat Place (and in Waterloo Street prior to that), clocking up about half a century selling what they do best: perfectly-poached Hainanese-style chicken, served with a choice of chicken rice, or a variety of savoury porridge: pork, chicken or fish-flavoured.
We opted for chicken porridge this morning, accompanied by a large, sharing platter of poached chicken, and chicken livers.
Each bowl of chicken porridge was topped with a scattering of golden, crisp-fried Chinese crullers or youtiao, called “yew char koay” in local Hokkien parlance. The porridge was served scalding hot here, so be very careful. Customers were also given the option of having a raw egg cracked into the hot porridge, which would instantly cook the egg upon contact. We opted not to have the eggs, so we could taste the original flavour of the chicken porridge.
The addition of the yew char koay gave the porridge a very nice additional textural dimension.
Personally, I thought the porridge tasted much blander than I’d expected. However, the perfectly poached chicken was really good, and the savoury-salty dressing for the chicken was useful to offset the blandness of the rice porridge.
Good breakfast, and we were rather chuffed to be able to catch up with KF Seetoh, the founder of New York’s Urban Hawker again, as he was just back in Singapore from NYC over the weekend.
Whilst Singapore’s younger, more sprightly hawkers have jetted off to New York to promote our street food there, I think more Singaporeans need to realise how lucky we are: to have living heritage treasures like this couple at Dunman Road Food Centre continue to offer such old-world comfort food.
Address
Rong Ji Chicken Rice & Porridge
271 Onan Road, Dunman Food Centre, #02-13, Singapore 424768
Tel: +658685 8808
Operating hours: 6am-3pm, Mon, Thu-Sun. Closed Tue & Wed.
