China’s Hakka Yu in Singapore

i've been wanting to try this Hakka chain from China, but there was always a huge line in front of their Jewel Changi Airport outlet that I could never get in. They've since expanded though, and today my timing worked out. Yay!

See, the menu had quite a number of items on it that looked promising, but I was after one thing: their salt-baked chicken. And it was delicious! Not only was it moist with a mildly herbal tinge, but most importantly, it had just the right amount of salt and grease to be edgy without being excesssive. The best part was when it all came together together with the collagen in the skin to form a mildly sticky consistency that was fun to gnaw off of the bones. They arranged the carcass in anatomical order by the way, and they also labeled the dish as being an Intangible Cultural Heritage.

What's odd is that the franchise down here is run by the Putien team, and they decided to put that Spice Mum chili sauce on each table, which felt incongruent and forced. But I did go for their suggestion to pair the chicken with that light pork soup in the foreground, which was crisp and refreshing.