Sin Heng Kee – The Thick Congee Will Warm Your Heart

There are two common styles of porridge in Singapore – the grainier and watery Teochew porridge, where each grain is still quite whole and separated, and the Cantonese congee, a mush of rice and water.

Sin Heng Kee specializes in congee. Not just any congee, but the extremely thick and gooey kind that can only be achieved from hours and hours of boiling.

The brand currently has two outlets – the original one at Hougang Street 61 and its new branch at Yishun Avenue 9.

When we visited the Hougang branch at around 1 pm on a weekday afternoon, it was swarmed with diners. Although it’s located within a housing estate, there were many white-collar workers having their lunch there. We were lucky and found a seat almost immediately, but had to wait for 20 minutes before our bowls of piping hot gruel came.

Sin Heng Kee has quite a number of congees available– fish, pork, century egg, frog legs, etc. We had the Meatball & Century Egg Congee ($4) and Sliced Meat & Century Egg Congee ($4) with the addition of an egg ($0.50). The stall sells fried dough fritters at $0.80 a packet too. 

Break the yolk and mix it in thoroughly, so that every mouthful of porridge is flavoured with the yolk.

We were really impressed with the consistency of the congee. Although the congee was a bit too bland for our liking, it was smooth, thick and gooey. The texture of the congee is a testament to the number of hours that have been put into the preparation. The meatballs were tender and well seasoned, with a good mix of lean meat and fats.

Whenever I’m running a fever or down with flu, I always crave a bowl of hearty congee. This inexpensive bowl of comforting goodness will warm your soul.

MissTamChiak.com made an anonymous visit and paid its own meal at the stall featured here.

You may wish to visit Chang Ji Gourmet for the equally delicious peanut porridge and bee hoon! Another popular stall that sells porridge is Xiang Ji Cooked Food in Clementi!