PETALING JAYA, Nov 22 –– Last year, I wrote about the restaurant with the coolest name in Kepong, Nice Soup Gang.
That story focused on their soup (but, of course) and a few dishes, but in the 30 years since the restaurant started, their menu has expanded to include plenty of fresh, premium seafood like crabs and lobsters –– with the former featured in a pretty luxe porridge.
I noticed these dishes at the time but chose to focus on the eponymous double-boiled soup that made the restaurant’s name and skip the rest.
That is, until I spotted a sign for Chao Zhou Fang in my neighbourhood, Damansara Jaya, earlier this month.
The dishes looked strikingly familiar, and some amateur sleuthing confirmed my hunch: the restaurant is indeed connected to Nice Soup Gang.
This was quickly verified on my visit, where the menu –– and the owner –– proudly explained the connection.
Opened by the second generation of the family, Chao Zhou Fang builds on their legacy, with the son describing porridge as “a delicacy that is slow-cooked and warms the heart, just like soup.”
The restaurant’s interior is almost awkwardly bright and shiny, with marble-like tables and white overhead lights everywhere.
No matter –– the porridge is where the heart and warmth truly lie.
The signature golden roe crab porridge (RM118 for small) is made with roasted pork bone broth, with an optional RM5 addition of pumpkin to give it a golden hue.
We opted to skip the pumpkin, and ours arrived a mild blonde, served in a claypot that kept it warm throughout the meal –– a nice touch.
It featured a whole roe crab, halved to spill its brilliant orange roe, alongside small king prawns (the menu specifies L. vannamei) and bits of dried scallop that had mostly dissolved into the porridge.
The staff helpfully offered to fish out the crab and deshell its claws and legs before returning the meat to the claypot –– a gesture we gladly accepted.
The porridge tasted sweet, its flavour drawn from the pork broth and the abundance of prawn and crab. The roe added bursts of rich, creamy crustacean goodness.
At the table, soy sauce, white pepper, and sesame oil allow diners to customise the taste; I added just a tinge of soy sauce, which dialled every flavour note up to 11.
For something considerably less pricey, but not lacking at all in flavour, one might consider the Canadian scallop prawn porridge (RM78 for small).
While the roe crab is swapped out for meaty medallions of scallop, the same king prawns and dried scallops remain –– but the real game changer is the prawn broth.
The rich, creamy roe of the golden roe porridge was a delicacy that’s worth indulging in, for sure, but prawn broth took this in a completely different direction.
Instead of a mellow sweetness as with the roasted pork bones, this was a deep, heady and intense punch of prawn flavour, much more savoury than sweet.
The porridge itself, sporting a tan complexion and streaked with vibrant red prawn oil, gleamed with richness. A touch of sesame oil was the perfect condiment to bring this to life.
Just as soup wasn’t the only dish at its predecessor, porridge isn’t the only option here.
The top-secret shrimp paste you tiao (RM26) came highly recommended by the waitstaff, but the shrimp-stuffed you tiao, drizzled in a yoghurt-like dressing, didn’t quite hit the mark.
The dressing wasn’t sour or thick enough to make an impression, leaving only some juvenile amusement from the awkward presentation.
The pile of diced pink dragonfruit didn’t help either; something sweeter and crunchier, like apples or pears, might’ve done the trick.
On the other hand, the black garlic fried pork belly (RM33), a returning favourite from Nice Soup Gang, was every bit as greasy, sinful, and delectable as I remembered.
Chao Zhou Fang 朝粥坊
17, Jalan SS 22/19, Damansara Jaya, Petaling Jaya
Open Wednesday to Monday, 11.30am-3pm, 5.30-10pm
Tel: 011-6222 2213
Instagram: @chaozhoufang.kl
* This is an independent review where the writer paid for the meal.
** Follow us on Instagram @eatdrinkmm for more food gems.
*** Follow Ethan Lau on Instagram @eatenlau for more musings on food and mildly self-deprecating attempts at humour.
