Chicken Rice Convert

Tender, glistening chicken rice definitely lives up to its reputation as a must-try dish in Singapore

It's not often I write off a country's most famous dish. So it was rather unusual for me to not check out the best places to try Singapore's legendary Chicken Rice before heading to the Lion City.

Lucky for me I had a very good guide and, I guess, good national food karma from religiously seeking out the best places to try local favourites almost everywhere I have gone in the past.

So it came about that I found myself trying a few spoonfuls of Hainanese Chicken Rice from a plate my friend bought from Tian Tian at Maxwell Centre - probably one of the most oft-cited stalls on Singapore's list of the best places to try this classic dish.

Anyway, I'll admit, I had to eat my rather hastily written words. Hainanese Chicken Rice - atleast the version I ate - is not, I repeat, not a bland dish made primarily from slimy, boiled chicken.

It actually turned out to be the most flavoursome dish I tried at any hawker centre - beating various forms of dim sum and even laksa hands down.

The rice was perfectly boiled, greased to just the right degree, extremely fragrant and lemony. The chicken was tender and very delicately spiced with what I believe was ginger. The accompanying sauce was tangy and spicy. All together they were poetry on a plate. 

So I skipped the Chicken Rice balls in favour of the original version and... I really, really wish I'd found out how great it was at the start of my trip to Singapore rather than at my last lunch in the city!

I believe good food karma led me to this stall at Maxwell Centre

As for the rest of the items on my Singapore Dish List, I'm happy to say I ticked them all off, with the exception of the Fried Durian Icecream (there was a bit of a mix-up in terms of which Majestic Hotel the restaurant was in and unfortunately I'd failed to get an address). 

Check out the gallery below of some of my culinary escapades in the city and look out for a future post on my top 4 finds that didn't make it to my initial dish list but would definitely headline any future gastronomic gallivanting in Singapore.

Related posts

What's on my 2012 Dish List

---

The Quest for Kaya

---