Rong Ji Chicken Rice • Porridge 🐔 Longstanding Easties' Favourite @ Dunman Food Centre

As a chicken and porridge lover, I was very excited when I stumbled upon Rong Ji Chicken Rice & Porridge while stalking Dunman Food Centre. So, I quickly joined the line of five people (at 10am on a Monday).

Stall name: Rong Ji Chicken Rice • Porridge 榮記鶏飯 • 粥

Address: Stall #02-13, Dunman Food Centre, 271 Onan Road, Singapore 424768

Hours: 6:00am - 3:00pm (Weds off)

You will not see many chicken hanging in the window at Rong Ji as the other birds are chilling in a tub of water.

Rong Ji is run by an elderly couple in their 80s. They must be among the oldest hawkers in Singapore. The veteran hawker couple is well coordinated, so they clear the queue pretty fast considering their age and time required to prepare each order. Uncle handles the chopping and cutting, while auntie handles the porridge, rice and money.

Rong Ji used to be at Waterloo Street then Sin Wah Coffee Shop followed by Eng Seng kopitiam at Joo Chiat Place before settling here at Dunman Food Centre. Over the years, Rong Ji has built up a loyal following of Easties. Observing the stall from my perch while eating, there's a constant queue of 5 to 8 people even at this pre-lunch lull.

Copying what others order, I had pork porridge and a side of chicken drumstick and offal. Everything together for $8.

The pork porridge was tongue scathing hot. It was neither as thick nor as smooth as Hong Kong congee - about a notch more watery and one step away from creamy smoothness.

The main flavour was savoury-salty from seasoning. I could not detect any rice sweetness. Little knobs of marinated minced lean pork with fat and cartilage embedded in the porridge added some texture and a little porcine flavour.

I had a raw egg dropped in the porridge but there was no eggy taste or it was overpowered by the savoury-saltiness in the porridge?

There were chopped toasted you char kueh on the porridge. I stirred and folded these into the piping hot porridge. The you char kueh soon lost most of its crispness and chewiness, soaking up water from the porridge.

The chicken meat and offal were dressed with a savoury salty blend of sauces and a bit of aromatic oil. The meat was tender and juicy. The meat tasted gently savoury salty with a subtle chicken flavour from the skin and visceral fat. I like the chicken taste but missed its sweetness, so overall it was a little flat tasting.

The offals were nicely done. The liver was soft-grainy, gizzard was crunchy, heart was tender-spongy. Taste was on the savoury-salty side.

The crunchy juicy cucumber slices were skinned which I like.

I saw a chap scooped a small bowl (the type they use for soup) of chili sauce, so some people like it that much. It was savoury salty and sharp spicy. It was especially useful in perking up the somewhat flat taste of the chicken and offal.

I heard that their rice is very good but I didn't try it this time as the porridge and chicken were too much food and carbs for me already 😅 Next round 😄

This little hawker centre has a few other nice stalls:

Say Seng Famous Tau Kua Paw 👈 click

Joo Chiat Ah Huat Wanton Mee 👈 click

Dunman Road Wanton Mee 👈 click

       

                     

             

             

               

               

             

           

           

           

                         

           

             

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            A post shared by Tony Boey Johor Kaki (@johorkaki)          

       

     

            

Written by Tony Boey on 15 Sep 2021