Plum & Rice – Delightful Japanese Fusion Food by 3 Young Hawkerpreneurs

Opened last December, Plum & Rice is run by 3 young and friendly guys, Gladwin, Eric, and Raphael. All of them graduated from The Culinary Institute of America, and felt that the hawker scene in Singapore is disappearing gradually. By setting up this stall, they hope to carry on our hawker trend, and the only way to stand out from others is to be different by offering fusion food.

To be honest, the two most Japanese things at Plum & Rice are the eye-catching Japanese-furnished storefront, and using Umeboshi in their rice and porridge. Other than that, the dishes and soup lean toward local palates.

Imported from Japan, Umeboshi is a kind of salted Japanese plum which has quite a number of health benefits. This plum aids digestion and counters fatigue. What’s more, the hawkerpreneurs realised that local food are on the heavier side, so Umeboshi actually cuts through with its acidity and hints of floral notes. At Plum & Rice, you get either Umeboshi rice or porridge with each set ordered.

Set meals are priced as low as $4, and consists of a bowl of Umeboshi rice or porridge, a small side dish, a serving of meat, and a bowl of soup. If you’d rather have the sous-vide cod fish, each set will cost $6. We tried both the Umeboshi rice and porridge, and preferred the latter as it is sweeter. It really cleans your palate for heavier dishes like the meat and fish. Moreover, this appetising bowl of Umeboshi porridge is perfect on days when you aren’t feeling very well, as it is tasty enough to be eaten on its own.

The Umeboshi rice, on the other hand, is quite special as it’s topped with house-made Furikake that contains cereal, curry leaves, dried shrimps, and seaweed. It is a Japanese-inspired Furikake with a local twist! This gives the slightly sticky Japanese rice a nice fragrance and umami. 

There are two options for the meat – braised pork belly and braised pork shoulder. We love the glistening fatty layers so we opted for the former. These pork belly are sliced, blanched, and braised for approximately 2 hours. No wonder it was love at first bite for us. Each piece is tender, and well-infused with the braised dark soy sauce gravy. There’s a good balance of fats and lean meat for each slice. If you prefer only lean meat, go for the braised pork shoulder.

As for the cod fish, it is cooked using the sous-vide method, and drenched in ginger soy sauce. On other days, you can get toman fish with black bean sauce, and more. The cod fish is fresh and fork-tender. It is well prepared in the sense that there’s no fishy taste to it. This fish goes very well with the Umeboshi porridge.

Soup lovers will rejoice upon hearing that the soup is free-flow with every order of their set meal. The soup of the day changes once every few days, and features homecooked soups such as corn soup and old wintermelon soup. The small dish also changes once in awhile.

Plum & Rice really amazed us with their value-for-money set meals. We would definitely return for their Umeboshi porridge. If you’re in a rush, take-away is available as well.

MissTamChiak.com made anonymous visit and paid its own meal at the stall featured here.

Let’s build a food community that helps to update the food news in Singapore! Simply comment below if there’s any changes or additional info to Plum & Rice. We will verify and update from our side. Thanks in advance!