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2010-08-24
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**************************Chapter 1 - HISTORY OF SINGAPOREAN CHICKEN RICE :- One of the most world reknowned National Dishes of Singapore is their intrepretation of Hainanese Chicken Rice, originally adopted from a foreign recipe called Hainan Region's 文昌雞 Dish, the name also pointing to a specific chicken's DNA. - Introduced into Singapore by ex-Hainanese immigrant 莫履瑞 who went onto open 瑞記餐廳 (Swee Kee), there is in reality no such dish as Hainanese Chicken Rice in Singapore! In the Lio
Chapter 1 - HISTORY OF SINGAPOREAN CHICKEN RICE :
- One of the most world reknowned National Dishes of Singapore is their intrepretation of Hainanese Chicken Rice, originally adopted from a foreign recipe called Hainan Region's 文昌雞 Dish, the name also pointing to a specific chicken's DNA.
- Introduced into Singapore by ex-Hainanese immigrant 莫履瑞 who went onto open 瑞記餐廳 (Swee Kee), there is in reality no such dish as Hainanese Chicken Rice in Singapore! In the Lion's City, its name has been shortened to just Chicken Rice, or Singapore Chicken Rice, perhaps in an attempt to disassociate their proud national dish from having that foreign Hainan Province's name attached. Similarly I guess Hong Kong people don't usually call some of our dishes accurately as 廣州雲吞麵, 廣州蝦餃, 廣州艇仔粥, etc. Its a way of cleverly avoiding the Intellectual Properties question by pretending to be innocent and ignorant, nevermind every single citizen is fully aware of its origin. The well informed readers will probably also have taken notice of the Government Supported Level fall-outs between Malaysia and Singapore in 2009, as to who could legally lay claim to which National dishes - its a battle with no immediate plausible solution, particularly when these two places share so much common denominators in their respective cuisines, even though a lot of them were derived from Chinese or Indonesian food.
- While history will happily validate the truth that Chicken Rice was not invented by Singapore or Malaysia, the argument going on between these two countries is pretty pointless then!! How about giving credits where its due, back to Hainan? Does Singapore even have proper genetically correct 文昌雞? Besides, the most authentic 文昌雞 aka Real Hainanese Chicken Rice are served quite differently to the Singaporean interpretation which we are so used to eating. Eg. The Meat should be served warm not cold or room temperature like in Singmalay, the Rice should have a 10% component of sticky rice and bitey, the Soup should carry Chicken Organs and it doesn't have to be winter melon but also could be lettuce based, the Meat shall be served with bones intact not de-boned, and cannot be skinless like the ones sold in so many Singaporean shops. There is also no Roasted Chicken version originally, only “白切". And I have avoided bringing into discussion the Thai or Vietnamese variations already!
- Hainan is actually also famous for a Hainanese Duck Rice !
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Chapter 2 - CHATTER BOX :
- It was largely predictable to see many people bagging Hainan Shaoye with no end in sight. When I wrote about that place, I had actually intended to write about Sergeant Chicken Rice as a prequel afterwards, and you'll understand why when you read on below! What I had deliberately left out in my last review was mentioning Singapore's well known poll results that Chatter Box has never been consensually regarded as the best representative of Chicken Rice. According to many Singaporean locals, Chatter Box is at best considered a Hotel-nised and elegant version, some even find it pretentious, condemning it as over-rated, over-priced. Afterall, Chicken Rice should be served as a hawker stall street food?! Its therefore not unexpected to see Hong Kong's Hainan Shaoye customers returng back online in hordes to complain of their homemade Chili or Ginger mince dipping sauces being too light in taste... because its a 6 Star Mandarin Oriental Hotel's version, designed by the 4 Original Chefs to be exactly this way, inorder to suit their hotel's sophisticated clientele.
- This Special Chatter Box Recipe was then passed on directly to their disciple Han Seng Fong, who just happens to be that same Executive chef now running the Hainan Shaoye show together with Michelin 1 Star owner Tony in Hong Kong nowadays, Han having worked in the original Chatter Box for 35+ years since 1971. Another ex-Chatter Chef Arron Ye Siong Lai is also situated at Hainan Shaoye. And still people don't trust its pedigree or dislike it? The thing is, one simply cannot compare the Chatter Box recipe version to other Singaporean Hawker stall versions, as the latter are usually much more rustic, bolder in every way, the rice having a more in-your-face chickeny and oily flavour rather than the Chatter Box's elegant herbal fragrance. These versions have much hotter Chili & Lime sauce, the Gingery & Garlic mince at least 5 times bolder, enough to make your breath smell bad afterwards. The Soy Sauce is often thick and more caramelised, bordering on the verge of becoming bitter, not the hotel-oriented 廣祥泰 soy sauce used in Hainan Shaoye or the original Chatter Box. Some chickens even carry more chicken taste and texture than the Chatter Box's Malaysian Farm sourced poultry, since the latest trend in Singapore elsewhere has caught on with sourcing good quality Kampung, basically a free-range rather than battery grown chicken! As Jason bon.vivant has mentioned previously, It is also important to point out a possibility that without the exotic Equatorian Climate, being situated in close proximity to the unique hawker stall's aroma, your holidaying relaxing mood, or on the other end of things, the location of a Chatter Box Chicken Rice restaurant situated in a 6 Star Hotel's top floor wreaking havoc on your mind - surely, you cannot expect to replicate the full experience in HK. You can fabricate things to suit, but it just wouldn't be the same! Sometimes, apart from the sourcing of ingredients or cooking techniques and outcome, we can never discount the psychological factor.
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Chapter 3 - SERGEANT CHICKEN RICE :
- If you happen not to have luck finding joy with Hainan Shaoye's "Chatter Box Version" Chicken Rice, think its too expensive or not worth waiting in the queue, well lucky you (and sorry to have kept you waiting and in suspense for so long !) ~ the story in my prequel to Hainan Shaoye goes that in fact, it was NOT the first Chatter Box restaurant to have arrived in Hong Kong. That honour goes to Sergeant Chicken Rice. Founded by Kiang Joon Toh in Singapore, the owner chef also trained directly under the Chatter Box regime for many years. And going by the comments written about Sergeant Chicken, it seems like most people underestimated it and treated it like like any Food Court store!
- Surprise No.2? Chef Han Seng Fong of Hainan Shaoye, aka above mentioned famous Chicken Rice Specialist hailing from Chatter Box, also OPERATES & OWNS a food court based Chef Han Chicken Rice shop in Singapore, set up after he had resigned from Chatter Box but before arriving in Hong Kong to oversee Hainan Shaoye ! So that makes two of them! Unlike many Hong Kong citizens or chefs, its apparent that even the top echeleon grade chefs from Mandarin Oriental or Singaporean customers don't look down upon food courts. It is probably also why the best food courts in Hong Kong are now operated by Singaporean group Food Republic & Bread Talk, as they just quietly capitalised when they saw a market.
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Chapter 4 - THE FOOD :
CHICKEN -
Not sure if anyone noticed, but at the beginning Hainan Shaoye's Chicken has no sauce under the chicken but that all changed one day. Similar to the later Hainan Shaoye recipe, the one at Sergeant's also has a soy and sesame oil based sauce lining the bottom. The chicken here can actually be quite good sometimes. Having tried here like 4 times and other outlets a few times as well, I think the Taikoo Place outlet is on average much better than the other shops. Strange!
RICE -
There is no rendered chicken oil in the rice here actually what oil there is left in the soup, but here they use a Shallots Oil which is made from frying the shallots in vegetable oil, the fried shallots then put into the Chicken Soup. The rice here are cooked to a pretty bitey texture, none of those gluey ones you find in too many other Hainanese Chicken rice shops. There is no elegant herbal taste from Pandan or Galangal here like at 海南少爺, nor a bolder Garlic and Chicken Oil flavour like the one in 好時沙嗲. Nevertheless, its enjoyable for what it is.
SOUP & SAUCES -
The soup here has a lot of the abovementioned fried shallots taste. It actually has both bought off the shelf fried shallots and also the homemade ones. Not a bad chicken soup. In fact, in most shops, the Chicken Soup is not the same batch that is used for Poaching the Chicken itself, just to put it on record ~ as I've mentioned somewhere, the poaching liquid is actually like a master stock (鹵水), which is re-used everyday and topped up, so as not to let the chicken lose its flavour during the cooking process, but in fact, have the strong liquid enhance back the flavour back into the chicken. You gain some, you lose some, its a give and take situation. The Soy Sauce here is one of the best ones I have found in HK as well, it has that nice charry caramelised taste, the Chili and Garlic/Ginger sauce meanwhile are MUCH STRONGER than the elegant version at Hainan Shaoye and the original Chatter Box. So it seems like the owner of Sergeant detracted from his Chatter Box training a little in this instance, which is fine by me !
VEGGIES -
The veggies here are always served really cold, which I don't really enjoy.
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IF YOU WANT TO EAT A CHEAP CHATTER BOX CHICKEN RICE,
THERE IS ANOTHER OPTION OTHER THAN HAINAN SHAOYE ..
AND REMEMBER, THIS BRANCH IS BETTER THAN THE OTHERS.
THE TST ONE IS SUBSTANTIALLY BELOW-PAR COMPARED TO HERE, DON'T ASK ME WHY THOUGH !
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