Ju Lie Restaurant (高渊茱莉海鲜粥及猪肉粉) has an outlet at The One in Bayan Baru. The store is located at the same row as Green Island Western Food, somewhat facing Moo Cow Frozen Yogurt.
This restaurant specializes in porridges (粥类) and pork noodles (猪肉粉). According to the menu, steamboat is also for larger dining parties.
Since Seafood Porridge (海鲜粥, RM15.00) is one of the purported specialty here, I decided to give it a try.
The porridge is a far cry from ideal. For starters, the watering soup base does not have much flavor, relying solely on seafood ingredients to impart flavor. I found it necessary to add ground pepper to the porridge for better flavor.
Seafood ingredients available in the porridge are prawns (虾), fried fish (炸鱼肉), abalone slices (鲍鱼片), fish maw (鱼鳔) and squid (鱿鱼). Chinese cabbage (白菜) and coriander (香菜) are also added for more all-rounded flavor.
The two pieces of prawns are quite fresh and succulent. However, I wish more prawns are given considering the price of this dish.
The fried fish pieces are quite oily and still have mild fishy smell. I think the chef has to look into this seriously.
The presence of fish maw and squid are welcoming. Once again, the amount served is miserably limited.
The best way to describe the porridge is “rice grains suspended in clear soup”. While some people like this type of porridge, I prefer the type with mashed-up, homogeneous consistency whereby individual rice grains are no longer visible. The latter type allows the soup base to impart more flavor into the starchy rice grains.
For drinks, I ordered a glass of Chrysanthemum Tea (菊花茶, RM1.50), which turns out to be quite diluted. Although I asked for a warm glass, I received a room-temperature one instead.
What’s my verdict here? I think the seafood porridge was marginally disappointing. Given an opportunity for revisit, I would like to try the pork noodles instead. Perhaps Ju Lie performs better here?