Redhill Porridge (红山粥) - Best Porridge I had at a wallet friendly price

• Operating Hours: 5.30AM to 8.30AM
• Operating Days: Monday to Friday
• Address: 85 Redhill Lane, #01-90, S(150085)
• How to get there: Alight at Redhill MRT (East West Line) and walk towards Redhill Close road. Estimated walking time about 5 mins.
• Food I had: Pork and Fish porridge.

Fancy for some porridge early in the morning on weekdays?

It was 7 am on a Tuesday and here I am queueing up at an old school porridge stall. It is not an uncommon scene at the Redhill market, for people to queue up to 45 minutes waiting for their pork or fish porridge. The price was very reasonable and affordable. While I was queuing, I realized many of them in the queue brought along their containers as well (it will save you 20 cents for takeaway).

Look how affordable the price can be? Nowadays, you can't get much at $2.50. We ordered their Pork and Fish Porridge takeaway. A total of $5.40.

Both the fish and pork porridge tasted slightly different as the different seasoning was used. The fish porridge was added with ginger slice and the taste of the sesame oil was much stronger; whereas for the pork porridge, fried onion (bawang goreng) was used to enhance the porridge taste.

We were pleasantly surprised by the generous amount of pork slices that the stall owner gave for the price of $2.50. Each spoonful was filled with pork slices and basically, every bite you take, you can savor the smooth and tasty porridge together and the pork slices together, in just one mouth. The texture of the porridge is definitely something worth commenting. It was smooth, thick and hot.

Many of the porridge places I have tried in Singapore or Malaysia are just mixture of cooked rice and a soup, with visible rice grains, and many times I felt like I'm eating "rice soup" instead. At this place, rice grains were smashed and cooked, not forgetting the art of stirring continuously using low fire - this is what it takes for an excellent porridge to be served.

Seng Kee Black Chicken Herbal - Alternative to Johor Fried Bee Hoon

• Operating Hours: 11 AM to 4 AM
• Operating Days: Daily
• Address: 467 Changi Road S(419887)
• How to get there: Kembangan MRT station walk towards Changi Road, walking distance est 5 mins.
• Food I had: Mixed Mee Sua Soup, Fried Bee Hoon, Stir Fried Nai Bai with Garlic.
• Website: https://www.sengkeeherbalsoup.com.sengkeeherbalsoup.com

I was randomly checking out some of the highly raved zi char restaurants in Singapore, and the shop "Seng Kee Black Chicken Herbal" appeared on the search engine. Out of curiosity, we decided to try it today.

Unlike other zi char restaurants, Seng Kee Black Chicken Herbal occupies almost the whole stretch of the walkway. We were told to order our dishes first before the staff assigned a table for us. There are so many choices on the menu, and every single item on the board is big enough for you to see even though you are standing.

We didn't know they allow free parking at the temple when we visit the restaurant! As there were not many parking lots nearby, we really spent quite some time looking for a legit car park lot. If you decide to visit the restaurant next time round, do look out for the car park lots at the temple.

When a table was assigned to us, we were surprised to see many Pokémon related pictures around the shop. It made us wonder if this place was previously a poke stop or a gym.

We waited for about 5 minutes before the first dish was served. It was full of herbal fragrance, though the look of this dish was not really appetizing. The taste of the soup was something to be worth commenting. The flavorful herbal taste of the soup does resemble the herbal bak kut teh, with a slight hinge of pork intestine and pork liver taste without any peppery taste. The soup was not too salty, and personally, I feel that it did make us drink a few more mouthful before we start eating the mee sua.

There are options for you to choose what you want to include in your mee sua: pork liver (猪肝), pork kidney (猪腰), lean pork meat. We decided to go for their mixed mee sua (to include everything inside) since they are famous for this. The portion was just right for one person, and personally, we felt that the pork liver, pork kidney, and mee sua were slightly overcooked. However, the lean pork slice was tender, almost to a point it could melt in your mouth, it does not taste like pork even. We felt that this dish has a mixture of good and bad, it is definitely still worth trying because of the soup based and the tender pork slices.

Cost: $5

The next dish that was served is the Stir Fried Nai Bai with Garlic. Pieces of mushroom were added and very well cooked with big fire as the wok hei taste is there. Great portion for 2-3 pax.

A Generous amount of fried shallots were also added on top of the garlic used to fry this dish. Definitely a plus point for us :)

Cost: $8

We had to wait for another 10 minutes before this signature dish is served. This "Johor San Lou Mee Hoon" look alike was seen almost on every table. We were told by the staff that a small portion ($10) is enough for 2 pax. However, despite the fact that we had the mixed mee sua earlier, we were still able to finish this plate of fried bee hoon. Crispy on the top layer, the mixture of the fried bee hoon with pork lard really blended very well together with the "wok hei" taste. Definitely worth a try!

Just as we thought we were being short changed ($10 of fried bee hoon and egg only?!) we realized the main difference between this dish and the famous Johor San Lou Mee Hoon is the way they put their ingredients. At Seng Kee, a generous amount of shrimps and fish cake were fried and placed in the middle, before the Bee Hoon is used to cover the ingredients. For Johor San Lou Bee Hoon, the ingredients and bee hoon will be fried together.

The taste of this dish at Seng Kee is comparable with Johor San Lou Bee Hoon. It will be better if the portion can be bigger.

Cost: $10 for small/ $15 for big

While I love the traditional, odd and uncommon dishes, It’s worth going to if you’re around the area, but save yourself the time if you are located at another end of Singapore.

Sunday Pasar Malam @ Permas Jaya JB (Fried Carrot Cake, Fried Chicken & Everything Else)

-=Relocated! Address Updated=-

• Operating Hours: 4.00PM to 10.00PM
• Operating Days: Sundays
• Address: 2, Jalan Permas 11/19, Bandar Baru Permas Jaya, 81750, Behind Renaissance Hotel
• Food I had: Fried Carrot Cake, fried chicken

In Johor Bahru, every day after 4 PM there's somewhere on the street where Pasar Malam is set up, today we focus on Sunday's Pasar Malam in Permas Jaya. If you are taking a cab to this place, just let the driver know you are going to Aeon Permas Jaya. And once you reached Aeon Permas Jaya, look around and you will see a lot of blue tentage across the road.

Their Pasar Malam unlike Singapore, sell more of daily necessities as the photo shown below.

Fruits, from as small as Cherry to as big as Durian.

Home use items like nail clippers, wallets, fingernail paint, bags.

Vegetables

and even egg!

So once over that section, we come into cooked dish like this crab with a different sauce.

Fried chicken, I have tried this before, they used chicken breast meat for the chicken which not to my liking.

roast duck and meats, they really look appetizing

Japanese bbq skewers, have not tried this before but will come back for it in future.

fresh sugar cane drink which they sell in 2 sizes, small for 2.50RM which is 350ML, and big for 5RM which is 1L. The sugarcane might not be pure sugar cane juice as they were really too sweet as if its drinking syrup. 

So this Kampung Nasi Lemak is one of my often visited stalls, no not for the rice but just for the fried chicken as you can see they put it just in a basket, you can just order this fried chicken by itself without buying any other thing, it cost 3.20RM per piece. Don't worry about the parts, all are either drumstick or thigh meat, so choose the one you have the most feel with.

After I bought a piece of thigh meat, I immediately took a bite, and I regretted it very much. The juice and the oil just keep flowing out, spilled onto my clothing, enough about the dirtiness. Even when you have not bite onto the meat, you know that it is worth buying. The fried flour with skin was totally crispy that you can hear the crunch more than eating cereal. The meat as expected was tender as and flavorful with their seasoning. The taste of it was applied with spices which you can taste in most of the Nasi Lemak stall. So taste wise, don't expect too much from it.

Next food I've tried was Tampoi Radish Keuh which is so called fried carrot cake, the stall owner always kept both his hand busy stir fry the radish kueh, with eggs, garlic, black sweet sauce, and chili

You won't see queue here as everybody ordered and continue on with their shopping before coming back to collect as normally it will take 30mins to have your order. Do let the lady boss know how much you want and with or without chili.

They only have 1 standard size selling at 5RM, the box does keep the warmth of the kueh.

Although it might not look appetizing to you, once you take 1 mouth, it's full of egg, the sweet black sauce, chili and a special taste which I suspect its cinnamon flour into it, they did not disclose to me what was it but it does taste like it. The egg was exceptionally generous! Every spoon I scoop bound to have a piece of an egg. So be sure to try it whenever you are at this Pasar Malam but be prepared to wait for it.