GEORGE TOWN, Jan 15 — Warm and comforting, porridge is as versatile as it is delicious. Believed to be first eaten in China more than 3,000 years ago as part of a healthy diet, this particular dish has crossed boundaries and become one of the staples in most ethnic-Chinese homes here in Malaysia especially for toddlers and the elderly.

There are two different styles to cooking the porridge. One style is a thick, sticky concoction where rice has been simmered over a long period of time till the grains are no longer discernible. Another style is more solid as the rice grains are cooked as normal but are softer and watery without losing the shape of the grains.

Porridge is often eaten by those recovering from an illness and due to its soft and mushy consistency, it is the perfect choice for those on a soft food diet. However, it doesn’t have to be bland and tasteless.

This rice-based dish can be cooked a variety of ways such as chicken porridge, pork porridge and simpler concoctions like salted egg and century egg porridge.  Then there is the seafood porridge.

The seafood porridge is a medley of natural flavours from the seafood used in preparing it. In a seafood porridge, the stock is usually a fish-based soup and in some cases, cooked rice is used to prepare the porridge.

The fish-based soup is added to the rice and simmered before seafood such as prawns, squids and fish maw are added into it. Finally, the dish is topped with choi sum or green leafy vegetables to give it a fresh, bright edge. As with anything to do with fish and seafood, the porridge will have thin slices of ginger in it.

The sharp spicy scent of the ginger is to balance out the strong fishy smell of the seafood. Usually, no other sauce is added to the porridge as it will be full of the natural flavours of its ingredients but some hawker stalls will add a dash of seasoning, pepper and garnish with garlic oil. Most of the time, dried radish known as chai poh is also added to the porridge for extra flavour.

In Penang, there are different stalls selling different styles of porridge. Some are famed for the chee cheong chok (pork innards porridge) and same offer plain white porridge to go with dishes like tau yew bak (soya sauce pork) and pickled vegetables. Then there are the seafood porridge stalls. These stalls usually offer a choice of porridge or noodles using the same fish-based stock.

These are the places to try out seafood porridge in Penang:

Ka Bee @ Pengkalan Weld

GPS: 5.412855, 100.339405

Time: 11am-2:30pm, 5pm-10pm

Fu Su Kong Temple, Jalan Burma

GPS: 5.429621, 100.313511

Time: 6pm-11pm

Joo Leong Cafe, Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah

GPS: 5.302291, 100.276238

Time: 6pm-11pm

Kedai Kopi Shalom, Medan Angsana 4

GPS: 5.390467, 100.283042

Time: 6pm-11pm

Kedai Kopi Hwa Lam, Jalan Raja Uda

GPS: 5.430810, 100.384560

Time: 6pm-11pm