Chaus Kitchen

Friendly service. THE place to go for luscious phở’ ga (chicken phở) in SGV! Papaya salad was good too. Must try!

We actually visited this eatery a while back. A friend just asked about a similar dish and now I recall. Call this a belated review as such.
Chaus Kitchen serves congee (watered down rice) TeoChew style. Congee is what most Chinese regard as comfort food, enjoyed throughout the year. Best consumed during late nights and winter months. Now, what and who is Teochew?
Well, a quick Google will find a lot of answers. But in short, the Teochew dialect, otherwise known as Chaozhou, Chiu Chow, Teochiu, or Tiuchiu is a dialect of the Chinese spoken variant of Minnan. This language is spoken in the Chaoshan region of the eastern region of Guangdong in China. So naturally the habitants from this region is known as Teochew.
When people hear of Guangdong, they think of Canton, hence Hong Kong. But Teochew cuisine is a separate culture by itself. Take for instance, the congee dish.
Cantonese congee is thickened yet smooth and often flavored with minced meat, chicken, fish, seafood. Rice grains are meshed up and not countable.
Teochew congee on the other hand is more soupy, with rice grains clearly countable and separable. Think of soup noodle dish but with rice grains. The true Teochew congee is prepared with fresh fish slices. Popular fishes include rockcod, promfret and carp. Fish slices has to be fresh. And Chaus can proudly claim and serve that. The soup is clear and very flavorful. Light and soothing to the taste bud.
At $ 8.95 a bowl, it is not cheap and believe it or not, you will never be full on a bowl of congee. Congee is a supper dish. Or rather a second dinner meal kind of dish.
Come to think of it, we are going there tonight.