Friday, June 06, 2008

Wen Tung Gee chicken rice (文東記), Singapore

Going to this Wen Tung Gee Chicken shop on Balistier Road (close and opposite to Balistier Road) is on my routine schedule. The chicken meat is really nice - tender but it lacks the taste of "chicken". It's not about the shop or the chefs. It's the specie of the chicken. The way of making Hainanese chicken rice is to dip the chicken in the hot water and cool water in turns already made the chicken meat lose its original flavour. I am not to complain about it because the water for dipping the chicken will be served as a chicken soup and soup for cooking the rice with fired garlic and ginger. It's all about the whole set of the meal. So for the chicken meat taste, I still prefer the steam way with ginger/scallion and 1 star anise. Rub the chicken with rock salt inside out, with some Chinese white wine (玉冰燒 or 玫瑰露). Steam the chicken for about 15-18 minutes. Afterwards, roll the chicken with the juice left on the plate. As it's still hot, the chicken will absorb the juice little by little. Then in about 20-30 minutes, the juice will be back to the chicken. However, this method requires your patience. If I have time I need to do that again.

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