Malaysia
Singapore
Thailand
If you like your eggs fully cooked and as firm as can be, this article simply isn’t for you. Running Egg is probably every yolk-hater’s worst nightmare, but an absolute dream to fans of silky, runny eggs.
Running Egg, located in a coffeeshop in Ang Mo Kio, specialises in the famous Thai-style runny egg rice from Bangkok. While scrambled egg rice bowls aren’t hard to come across in Singapore, Running Egg takes things to the next level with their extra runny and watery “omelettes” that leave each plate absolutely drenched in golden goodness.
I seem to have a penchant for bad luck when it comes to these anonymous visits, because when I headed down to the stall for the first time, only 1 of the 5 dishes was available— the Pork Jowl variety. My determination to try all the different toppings was strong though, which resulted in me paying 2 separate visits to the stall. Talk about big-backed dedication.
What I tried at Running Egg
On my first visit, I enjoyed the Pork Jowl Rice (S$7.80). Straight away, I was a little turned off at how different the presentation of the dish was compared to the picture in the menu.
While the image boasted a huge rack of golden brown sliced pork jowl that covered half of the rice, my dish came with a few pieces of pale pork that were messily scattered on top. Portion-wise, the image was a little misleading. Additionally, I was surprised at the tiny amount of rice used in the dish— only about half a bowl of rice is served.
The eggs, however, looked absolutely glorious. Unlike most other egg rice stalls that use only 1 or 2 eggs, Running Egg uses 4 whole eggs per dish, ensuring that the entire dish is covered in creamy eggs.
As a fan of creamy, runny eggs, every bite of this dish was bliss. The eggs were incredibly smooth and silky, and the distinctive savoury taste of the egg yolks was very prominent. I did find them to be a tad too salty, however, with not enough rice to balance out the strong flavours. After a while, this creation did get a little jelak— I mean, we are talking about 4 whole eggs per dish.
The pork jowl had a nice crispy skin, and while it was pretty juicy, it was also rather chewy. The texture didn’t affect the flavours much and the dish as a whole was still super tasty— just take note that the image in the menu is not very representative of what you actually get.
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I headed back down to Running Egg a week later, and thankfully, all 5 dishes were available this time— phew!
The Moo Ping Rice (S$7.80) came with 2 sticks of moo ping. I also decided to add on some à la carte Pork Jowl for S$4, just to see if there was any difference from the pork jowl from the week before.
Unfortunately, I was let down by the quality of the moo ping— the meat was very dry and slightly tough. Flavour-wise, it had a nice sweetness to it, but the size of the meat was pretty small and the dryness was off-putting.
The pork jowl was chewier than the one I had the week before, and somehow a bit blander too. At least the skin still retained a bit of crunch to it. As for the egg and rice, the eggs were still nice and runny, and a lot less salty compared to the previous week, making it less jelak. The slight quality difference between the dishes last week and this week alluded that perhaps the stall wasn’t very consistent with its preparations.
The Luncheon Meat Egg Rice (S$5.80) was a much better choice, as it came topped with a generous amount of luncheon meat cubes. Each cube was soft with a firm exterior, and the saltiness of the luncheon balanced out the milder flavours of the runny egg and rice.
I also really liked the Prawn Egg Rice (S$7.80), which I found to be one of the better topping options at Running Egg.
The prawn was pretty juicy with an addictive texture, and I liked how the prawn was chopped up into small, bite-sized pieces, making it easier to scoop them up along with the egg and rice.
Definitely opt for the Chicken Basil Egg Rice (S$6.80) option if you’re a fan of basil chicken. The portion of chicken was pretty adequate in relation to the egg and rice, and it also had a slight spicy kick to it, complementing the creamy eggs nicely.
Final thoughts
While the runny eggs are certainly delicious, I find that the portion of food is a bit small, especially when taking the price into consideration. The misleading pork jowl image is also a bit concerning, though the Chicken Basil, Prawn and Luncheon Meat topping options weren’t too bad.
I praise the novelty of the runny egg rice concept, but I doubt I’d travel all the way back just for this again. Still, the stall is worth a visit at least once— after all, where else can you find such runny eggs in Singapore?
Expected damage: S$5.80 – S$7.80 per pax
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