Friday, May 20, 2005

Chicken Rice

Chicken Rice

Ah - chicken rice - the signature dish of Singapore. I used to eat this stuff as much as 2X a day when I first moved to Singapore because of how much I loved it. I don't eat it as much anymore, but it is one of the few local hawker dishes that I have not gotten sick of (that and bak kut teh).

Anyway, I'm glad there is a pretty darned good chicken rice guy nearby. His chicken is cooked just right, the rice is rich and moist, and he provides a generous portion of scallions - better than most of the "famous" Chicken Rice guys in Singapore. (And he doesn't drown it in some lame sweet sauce, either.)

Plus, I hate how Chinese cuisine requires hacking bones in half, ruining your experience with the little crunchy inedible scatterings of bone fragment and marrow all over the chicken (it's allegedly for the tastier dark meat). Me, I like this guy because he gives me a nice clean filet of breast meat that I can inhale right on down without any worry of those ridiculous bones interfering with the eating enjoyment.

The only drawback of Chicken Rice is the instant Dragon-Breath that results from the raw garlic in the chili sauce. I've learned to keep a toothbrush in the office to combat that, and I try to avoid the chili sauce now too (loading up on the ginger instead). But that's still not a solution since the raw scallions are there too (plus the chili sauce is so good that it's hard to avoid).

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

My spouse who is Canadian used to eat only chicken rice and satay everyday..when he was in singapore.. hah!!

Anonymous said...

apparently drinking milk after helps to rid garlic breath ;)

Anonymous said...

Try the chicken rice along River Valley Road. Its called 'Five Star Hainanese chicken rice & kitchen'.

Don't forget to sample the chicken, try the fish cubes (delicious and smooth) and the tofu (melt in your mouth insides, slightly stiff and crunchy outside)ones.
Order the pork belly in salted veggies - its DA BOMB!

Scarf down with fragrant chicken rice and lime juice. YUM.

Word of advice: Go with a friend it gets weird with people staring at you when you eat alone. :\