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We’ve all heard of choosing your own ingredients for mala bowls and yong tau foo, but have you ever thought about doing the same for congee/porridge? Peng Jia Zhou at ESR BizPark is Singapore’s first DIY congee concept – you choose which ingredients you want in your congee, and it’s then cooked into a steaming hot bowl of goodness.
Located at the food court inside the mall (just cut through Decathlon), Peng Jia Zhou offers 16 different fresh ingredients, which means hundreds of congee variations. Priced at S$5 per 100g (minimum order 100g), the weight limit is only for the raw ingredients. The porridge is free of charge and already included in the price. This works out to be S$0.05 per 1g.
There are weighing scales on the counter for you to see how much your selected ingredients will cost, so you know exactly how much to pay.
In addition to congee, there is also a variety of side dishes: Fried Large Intestine (S$6.90), Hakka Style Fried Pork (S$5.90), Pang’s Century Egg (S$5.90) and Fried Intestine (S$6.90). There was also Moonlight Salted Egg (Prawn & Pork) (S$5.90), but unfortunately it wasn’t available for the day.
For my congee, I picked quite a few ingredients, among them pork and prawn paste, pig’s liver, and some abalone. (I went a little overboard because my total came up to S$7 for 140g.) I also asked for some Salted Egg (S$0.50 per scoop). Century Egg and regular Egg are also available as add-ons, each priced at S$0.50 per serving. Pretty worthwhile, if you ask me.
The ingredients were all cooked just right, and the congee itself is very balanced in flavour. Light soy sauce is provided if you want it a little saltier.
The Golden You Tiao (S$0.80 per piece) is a must-have sidekick for any bowl of congee. The you tiao here are made with fresh housemade dough, and fried to order. Delicious!
If you’re looking for a new congee experience, why not drop by Peng Jia Zhou? The price point is affordable, and there’s no GST or service charge to boot.
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