Steamed white chicken rice ($4.50)!
Yishun coffeeshop Hainanese steamed white chicken rice: poached chicken over fragrant chicken-stock rice, with chilli, dark soy, ginger and soup. $4.50.
Lunch at a Yishun coffeeshop: Hainanese steamed white chicken rice, $4.50. 😋
What was on the tray:
- Steamed white chicken: poached chicken slices, the skin pale and slippery, coriander on top
- Fragrant rice: the chicken-stock rice, glistening with oil
- Chilli + dark soy: the two dips in the divided saucer
- Cucumber under the chicken, and a bowl of soup on the side
Hainanese chicken rice is Singapore’s unofficial national dish, and the white (steamed) chicken is the original, purer form, against the roasted version. The chicken is poached gently in barely-simmering water (or steamed) and then plunged into ice, which sets the skin into that signature slippery, gelatinous layer and keeps the meat tender and just-cooked. It is deceptively hard to do, overcook it and the meat goes dry and stringy.
The rice is the real test: it is cooked in chicken stock with garlic, ginger and pandan, sometimes with rendered chicken fat, so each grain is fragrant, oily and separate. A good chicken rice can be judged on the rice alone, and the rice here was properly fragrant, the mark of a stall using real stock rather than just oil and flavouring.
The chilli is the soul: the Hainanese chicken rice chilli, garlic, ginger, red chilli and lime, is what locals judge a stall by. With the dark soy and the ginger paste, the condiments are half the dish.
At $4.50 for a steamed chicken rice at a Yishun coffeeshop, this is honest neighbourhood pricing, while the famous-name stalls charge $6-$8.
Overall: 4.1 / 5. 😋👍🏼 The slippery-skinned tender chicken and the fragrant rice were the standout. Coffeeshop chicken rice done right, would re-order.
