Perhaps it’s the start of a new year but I was hit by a wave of nostalgia and thought of Oasis Taiwan Porridge, a Chinese restaurant TH and I used to frequent very regularly for suppers about two decades ago. This was during the time when it was located in Kallang - also in a round building and surrounded by water, just like it is now at Toa Payoh Gardens (and if you know what I’m talking about, I guess we’re about the same age 😂).
Since there were just us two yesterday, I could only order most of our old favourites: Stirfried Szechuan Vegetable with Pork, Chye Por Omelette, Cold Silken Tofu in Soya Sauce with Century Egg and Pork Floss, Stirfried Beansprouts with Salted Fish, and Braised Pork.
The highlight for me though, has always been their porridge which is cooked to the perfect consistency with sweet potato. And because it is served in a thermos container wheeled over on a trolley which stays by your table, it is still nice and warm when you help yourself to more later.
Aside from the rather dry braised pork we encountered yesterday, the rest of the dishes were fine. Flavours tasted as old-school and robust as I recall. The food was still on the oily side (it’s like they never got the government’s memo to go healthier 😂) but it’s exactly why the clean-tasting porridge paired well with them I guess.
You know what is the best part of this dish? Which is you can eat without getting your hands dirty! Chicken was deep fried before stir frying in a pot with the cereal toppings.
Served in a big pot for sharing. Ingredients are super generous here. The broth was a tad too sticky to my liking but the lavish amount of fosh maw make up to it!
Plating was slightly different from the usual restaurant or zichar stall. The chicken egg was served with runny yolk that you can break and stir the yolk with the spinach. Light yet flavourful!
Very generous pot of thick slab pig liver. Nicely cooked in the claypot. Liver was tender and does not have the foul smell.
Hong Kong style sauce steamed fish, served sliced along the middle bone, easy to cut and share. Fresh!
Pre-cooked and served with another round of fire to make it bubbling hot. Portion enough for 10 pax. Layered bottom is white cabbages, chicken mid joint, duck meat, sliced chinese yam, whole mushrooms, fish maw, white radish, dried scallop, broccoli, big prawns, canned whole abalone and superior savoury sauce.
a standard restaurant my mum always brings me to when i was young for any national stadium event. brings back some nostalgia. but the price is not worth it though the food is still nice. 25 per pax. #oasistaiwanporridge #taiwanporridge #childhood #nostalgia #cxyixlocal #burpple #sgfood
Thick slices of Garoupa fish, steamed in Teochew style. Salted vegetables, tomato, sour plums, black fungus and cut red chilli. Lightly salted in taste. Enjoy while it’s hot.
Recipe from Kota Tinggi. Thinly sliced pork belly, seasoned in salted fish and dried chilli, claypot fired till sauce is caramelised. Serious deliciousness to partner with the sweet potato porridge.
Colourful ‘bird nest’ holding stir fried celery, straw mushrooms, carrot, prawns and scallop. Sprinkled with cashew nuts. The nest can be eaten as made with deep fried Yee Mee.
Half chicken portion. Very light herbal flavour, skinny skin and very tender chicken meat.
A popular dish of deep fried beancurd covered with chai poh. Goes well with the sweet potato porridge.
Braised Duck with Tofu, a traditional Teochew dish, also in a pool of sweet-savoury dark sauce. Meat was succulent and immersed with the sauce's delicious flavour; the tofu cubes were silken and lovely
Preserved vegetables with pork intestines, signature tofu, steam fish, fried egg omelette, crab meat and Chinese stew pork mantou.
During our "dating era" many years ago, my hubby and I would frequent "The Oasis" for midnight suppers. This was when it was located in a "floating" structure over the Kallang River, kind of where the new Sports Hub now stands. After reading fellow Tastemaker Fiona Ting's Burp about her visit to their premises in Toa Payoh recently, I was reminded of how much we enjoyed their simple dishes served with porridge. Thus triggering our first ever visit there.
When we spotted our old favourites in their menu, we were instantly charmed. Of course we had to order them again.
Upon tasting the "Chilled tofu with pork floss and century egg", T.H. proclaimed that it's exactly as he remembered. It may not be the most complicated of dishes but the combination of cool beancurd, pungent "pei dan" (century egg), pork floss and sweet black sauce had always appealed to him. Well, that hasn't changed. In those days, he also got to know my penchant for the flavourful because I never failed to order the "Szechuan vegetable with pork strips" whenever we ate there. Interestingly, this dish has evolved to now include beansprouts and julienned bamboo shoot. Our other must-have, the "Fu Yong Egg" has pretty much remained the same. It's still as puffed up with oil as ever but did we mind it? Nope, not then, not now. Why? Because their signature porridge that's cooked with plenty of sweet potatoes is a great "yin" to everything. Greasy "yang" included. It tickled me to see that it's still served in their iconic red thermos.
And because they remain open till 4.30am daily, it's somewhere lovebirds can flit to if feeling peckish in the middle of the night.
#EatBurpLove
Oasis does a good version of this. Thinly sliced Sze Chuan Vegetables, shredded pork, scallions and rough chopped red chillies for a tad bit of spice. Slightly salty on its own, but goes fantastically with their sweet potato porridge. I never fail to order this on my every visit.
9bucks/small serving
#burpplesglatenight
Porridge is somehow the one thing that truly provides me comfort (yes I'm very Asian that way). Oasis has one of the largest range of menu items for a porridge joint, it's completely air-conditioned (keeping us away from the humidity), and I love the fact that they open till 3am daily.
1.8bucks for free flow of porridge; side dishes sold separately
#burpplesglatenight
