Thursday, December 06, 2007

Rice porridge for two.

Down Sukhumvit Road, near the On Nut BTS station, there is a string of food stands gathered under a long awning. I pass them daily, and have for some time been curious to try them, but since they're only open during the day while I'm at work, the opportunity never seemed to present itself. Recently, I noticed that one of the stands sells rice porridge- and that it seemed to be extremely popular in the mornings. So, to satisfy my curiosity, Bordeaux and I left for work a little early today, and stopped for two bowls of rice porridge.

There was an impressive line at the rice porridge stand when I arrived, but the husband and wife team were working quickly, so I soon reached the front. I ordered two bowls of rice porridge- with egg- while Bordeaux bought too cups of hot coffee and two twisted donuts. Within a minute of sitting down, the two large white bowls were brought out to us. Perhaps based on my memories of oatmeal, I had imagined that the rice porridge would be a flavorless gruel. I was rather surprised. The dish was piled with grated ginger and sliced spring onions, which added a strong, delicious flavor to the milky porridge. The egg had been cracked raw into the bowl, and was slowly cooking in the hot dish. It added a nice flavor, as the yolk swirled in with the grainy broth. While the pieces of liver (and other, unidentified pieces of meat) were a little chewy for me, they added a nice hint of flavor to the porridge. The donuts we had on the side were also nice- if a little oily. And in fact the porridge was actually such a generous serving, that we didn't really need them. All together, it was a surprisingly flavorful breakfast.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Visually it was almost as thrilling as my childhood breakfast of warm porridge with fairy footprints. But in flavors it wins hands down.

HopSkipJump said...

Fairy footprints? Oh dear, there are so many jokes I could make right now :)

Looks delicious.

Anonymous said...

you are the cutest ever! i miss you and B so much! can't wait til you come back to LA -- even if just for a visit! =)

Anonymous said...

Mmmm-mmm. Congee. Yum.

VegeYum

Denise Kiggan said...

So interesting! What an unexpected combination of flavours and foods for breakfast - but it sounds great.

Unknown said...

But would you say it was "just right"? Also - when did you start wearing ties?

I want to know more about Bordeaux's fairy-footprinted porridge.

Heather Moore said...

Those donuts look just like koeksusters from South Africa. Were they as sweet and sticky?

elingchin said...

Well in my family we called this stuff 'juk' or maybe 'jook' and by the way you're supposed to put the donuts IN the porridge!!! We called those 'yow tow gwai' or 'fried devils'....It sounds fantastic and I'm so jealous...Oxy offers hardly anything so fun and delightful. No fairy footprints either.