Ok, Bryan Wong and friends gave 8 thumbs up for this chicken rice shop, so I must try it for myself. This recent passion of mine to find the best white chicken in Singapore is not doing any favors for my waistline!
As I mentioned in my previous blog, it is really not fair to compare Kampung Chicken with the normal white chicken. You know that this chicken has spent the last 3 months of her life sitting in front of the TV, not excercising and eating cornmeal. The skin is luscious, the flesh tender and juicy and there’s that nice layer of gelatin and fat in between the skin and the flesh.
I concede that the meat is not as “chickeny” as Kampung chicken and the best way to tell is to eat the breast meat by itself without condiments. However, if it is texture that you are going for, this is it.
The rice is very nice, but the chilli sauce is a let down and they don’t giveminced ginger. How can you be the “world best” if you don’t provide minced ginger?!
Chicken in Ice Cold BathMing Kee’s trick is to keep the chicken submerged in ice water up till the time they serve the chicken. So you notice that there aren’t any chickens hanging. They are all in the bath tub! Even when the chickens are halved, they are kept in a rectangle ikea box and submerged in water up till they actually chop the chicken.
Conclusion
The chicken is excellent but the condiments are a bit lack lustre. I think that nowadays, condiments are much more important than in the past. Unlike Swee Kee in the good old days, where chickens are handpicked from their own farms, nowadays, the chicken come from a few suppliers from across the causeway. So what differentiates one chicken rice shop from another is often the rice and the condiments (Nowadays the technique of cooking then soaking the chicken in ice water is well established). That’s why a few years back, shops seeking to differentiate themselves started selling Kampung Chicken.
This stall is definitely well worth trying and is probably one of the best in Singapore. For me however, Yee Cheong Yuen’s white chicken is still number 1.
4/5 Excellent chicken paralysed by the lack of great condiments
