Okay, so it's kind of funny, but despite having had plenty of meals around the country at different points in time, there're only two zichar places here and there that (for now) I say I will want the most.
One place is Chin Chin Eating House near Beach Road.
The other, is here.
Gu Zao Ren Taiwanese Porridge at Changi Road.
But, wait, you might ask, how is Taiwanese Porridge even close to zichar? Yes, there're dishes of pork and chicken and fish and vegetables, all that sort of thing, but in no way can the smooth, silky, rice porridge with a sweet potato bobbing about inside be compared to the robust, gravy-laden, oft fried dishes of the zichar!
You know what?
I thought the same thing too.
But a quick turn of their picture menu soon proved me wrong.
On all fronts, Gu Zao Ren feels like, and looks like, any regular zichar place that's got a rich offering of zichar favorites.
But right at the bottom of their ordering list a surprise pops up- the option for their rice porridge- and that's what you might have if you want something more liquid, or if you don't want rice, fried rice, or any of their noodle dishes that are on the menu.
I was rather interested in their noodle dishes the first time I visited there.
But then my companion wanted to try their mains, and since I hadn't made up my mind about noodles, rice and all, I agreed.
We spent a good amount of time mulling over the menu.
There was so much we wanted to have.
I was keen on their omelets (don't ask me why), and I really wouldn't have minded a hotplate tofu. Then again, I probably would also have wanted to have sweet sour pork, stir fried kang kong and maybe some sort of chicken or the salad youtiao whose picture in the menu I found exceptionally appetizing.
But there're only just the two of us, so we had to choose, and in the end, none of the above I wanted we had.
No complaints, though.
The Hainanese pork chop and the hotplate venison were really good.
Far from being incompatible with the warm, smooth rice porridge (as I had initially feared) the gravy of the venison went very well with the porridge, the venison slices were very tender, and even the breaded pork chop didn't get soggy and weird after I dunked it in.
So good were the flavors, and so satisfying was the portion that a week after we went back there for dinner again.
This time I was (again) very attracted by their sam lor hor fun, their beef hor fun dry, their omelets and their fried rice, but because the rest of their dishes in the ordering list sounded just as delicious, and which I was also keen to try, we went for other dishes again.
No hotplate meats did we have this time.
No stir fried vegetables either.
Unless, of course, if you consider homemade ngoh hiang prawn rolls some sort of a vegetable (which, thinking about the ingredients, it is, isn't it).
Anyway, that's one of things we ordered, along with a plate of prawn paste chicken wings and the Hainanese pork chop (again) that, like the last time, came served with a bowl of tomato sauce, and a heap of criss cut crispy fries.
It didn't matter to me that we didn't order what I wouldn't have minded to have.
Food is food to me, just so long as it's good, and I was very happy chomping through the super fried and super crispy prawn paste chicken, I loved dipping the ngoh hiang into the chili then into the porridge (somehow the porridge had more flavor) and then the fries were so good that, despite the fantastically huge portion of all their dishes, I munched finished them all.