Duke of Congee @ 704 Bedok Reservoir Rd. The Kosong Congee is Already Tasty Enough for Me 粥公

This new little congee stall in Bedok Reservoir Road BLK 704 coffee shop is quickly gathering a following for their flavour packed porridge. It's easy to see why, once we tasted it - delicious and good value for money.

Stall name: Duke of Congee 粥公

Address: 704 Bedok Reservoir Road, Singapore 470704 (C & T Cafe kopitiam)

Nearest MRT: 5 minute walk from Bedok North station

Hours: 7:30am - 3:00pm (Tues off)

Thanks to buddy Timothy who brought me here to taste the congee of his former culinary student.

Duke of Congee is the venture of Chen Tien Jia and Lilyan Baptist who both recently graduated from The CIA (Culinary Institute of America) degree programme. Instead of the conventional career path of going to restaurant or hotel kitchens, Jia and Lilyan opted for the hawker route as the first step to realise their dreams.

Duke of Congee has many options of porridge. As this was my first time here, I chose their Signature Congee which has a bit of everything (except canned abalone which I am not a big fan of, anyway).

The you cha kway on top covered almost everything but believe me, there's toman fish slices, lean pork slices, pork liver slices, pork intestine, cuttlefish, century egg, raw egg, pork ball, more crisp you char kway and chopped scallion.

$5 for the fully loaded congee, $1 for the you cha kway. Very reasonable pricing!

First things first, the piping hot congee.

Wow...! The thick gooey porridge was loaded with flavour as Duke of Congee boiled the blend of two types of rice grains with chicken stock. The rice grains were boiled almost to a paste which was well infused with the stock's umami-savouriness which balanced the rice's sweetness.

The kosong congee is already tasty enough for me.

The jumble of ingredients like pork and liver slices, hand made pork ball, cuttlefish etc just make the already nice congee taste even better with more texture and mix of flavours. Everything was fresh, clean and tasty.

I didn't even bother to add soy sauce or pepper. The congee was flavourful enough for me as it is and I don't want to mess up the taste profile.

The you char kway is optional but I highly recommend it. It is freshly fried on order, crisp and chewy, and not overly greasy. I saw several customers come in just to take away the freshly fried you char kway. At $1 a piece, it is a steal.

I was curious about the slightly pretentious sounding name Duke of Congee 粥公.

Tien Jia said 粥公 is a cheeky play on the name 周公 who was Duke of Zhou dynasty from 1042 BC to 1035 BC, hence Duke of Congee.

Duke of Zhou is also known as the God of Dreams, so after eating at Duke of Congee you can enjoy good sleep and sweet dreams 😴 To me, Duke of Congee is also Tien Jia and Lilyan's dream of entrepreneurship.