Honkee porridge

We chanced upon this porridge place quite by accident. My wife just had a dental procedure and we were looking for some soft food for dinner. We were actually heading towards Guo Lou Choy when we saw this green shop offering porridge and decided to divert. I did not have my camera to take any pictures that evening. But because we were quite impressed with the food, we returned for breakfast on a later date and this posting was the outcome of that.

 

Honkee Porridge is located on Jalan SS21/1A in Uptown, PJ. It is walking distant from Guo Lou Choy on a roll of shops at the outer edge of PJ Uptown, only a few shops from TM Point.

 

Because of its name, I initially thought the shop had its origin in Hong Kong. As it turned out, it is very much a Malaysian establishment. It has its roots from a lady who had a porridge stall in Petaling Street in KL. Like other humble beginnings featured in my blog (Sisters' Curry Mee and Guo Lou Choy) her porridge stall of 60 years grew and there are now Honkee porridge restaurants not only in Uptown, but also in Lot 10, Bandar Puteri Puchong and Taipan USJ.

She was in the shop that morning when we had our breakfast. Surrounded by grand children, I don't imagine she now needs to bother about cooking porridge for her customers any more.

She must had made a name for herself in porridge making, evidenced by newspapers reviews and pictures of culinary dignitaries on the wall of her shop.

Her fresh fish porridge (鱼生粥) is apparently very popular. Slices of raw fish was served with a piping hot bowl of plain porridge with some ginger and spring onions. The fish stirred into the porridge would be cooked just right. It tasted great - tender and fresh. The porridge was smooth and flavorful. Very delicious indeed.

Another popular item is the pork innards porridge (chu chap chok - 猪杂粥). As the name suggests, it was porridge with the various parts of the pig - liver, tongue, heart and I don't know what else. The ingredient that I liked best was the deep fried pork intestine which tasted so crispy and good in the porridge. 

The place also serve other non-porridge goodies. Like the nasi lemak that was really quite tasty in spite of its appearance. The rice was lemak-ly fragrant. It was served with some dry sambal that tasted very nice. A bowl of rather dilute chicken curry was served separately. Combined, it was a plate of good nasi lemak.

The chee cheong fun (猪肠粉) was rather ordinary. We opted to have it in curry sauce, which perhaps was a mistake. The curry, most likely the same as that in the nasi lemak, was rather watery. 

They also have various types of fried stuff. They have a small stall at the front where you can make your selection.

The yew char kueh (油炸鬼) is a must if you are having the porridge, for it taste so very nice dipped into it. I seriously do not think rice porridge would be complete without some YCK to dip in.

Other fried goodies that we had included the spring roll (春卷) and radish cake (萝卜糕)...

.. the prawn cake (虾饼)...

... and finally the hum chim paeng (咸煎饼) which was very nice as a dessert.

We enjoyed Honkee. I was pleased with their menu variety. The porridge is definitely worthwhile and you do not need to be ill or dentally incapacitated to go there for a nice bowl.