Chicken rice, S$3.00.
The original plan was lunch at Tanglin Halt / Commonwealth Crescent food center. On the way there, I walked past a scruffy-looking old coffee shop at the road junction. There was a familiar fragrance in the air; every table occupied was tucking into chicken rice with gusto.
The stall.
Naturally, being the curious foodie, I abandoned the original plan. There were 3 or 4 stalls in the coffee shop, but the chicken rice stall was clearly the one that people came for.
Do you like breast?
When my order came, my heart sank when I saw the meat doused in starchy gravy. For me, an authentic, succulent Hainanese chicken needs no such embellishment. Minus 1 point!
I was given the breast meat, so there wasn’t much flavor, however the meat wasn’t dry and was smooth (maybe the gravy helped?). The rice was airy and puffy, not fragrant enough, but not oily either. Plus points for the rather generous portion.
Overall, I thought the chicken rice here wasn’t that fantastic. Guess the gravy is a major turn-off for me! I certainly wouldn’t come all the way here, but if in the area and craving for chicken rice, I’ll drop by. Will certainly tell the vendor to hold off that gravy!
The coffeeshop.
Tian Shui Ji Fan Ji Zhou (or Tian Shui Chicken Rice & Chicken Porridge)
Guan Kim Restaurant (corner coffeeshop)
47 Tanglin Halt Road
Singapore 141047
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The tian shui chicken looks GOOD!!! I great blog too, I will be back!!
Ya, the gravy spoils the whole dish! Now I crave for chicken rice even more…
Hi Miguel, thanks! Your site is very informative!
Piggy, I’m sure with your culinary skills, you’ll be able to re-create chicken rice beautifully.
when i was still around took all the local food for granted but now…..
it’s so hard to find hainanese chicken rice in melbourne (or maybe i didn’t try hard enough??)
the hong kong version of chinese rice, well good enough to fill my stomach but not that nice…those breast meat look so delicious and it also happened to be my most fav portion..