If there is one dish I could eat everyday for breakfast, lunch and dinner, it would have to be Hainanese Chicken Rice. While the dish originates from China, it is more of a national dish in Malaysia and Singapore, where it is consumed at any time of the day. The dish is as simple as ‘steaming’ the freshest chicken in a master stock made with those ‘usual suspects’ in Asian cooking (garlic, ginger, shallots, shaoxin wine, soy), and what you get is juicy succulent flavorsome chicken that you cannot get enough of. The dish is often served cold, with rice cooked in chicken stock, cucumber and sauces (can be ginger and shallot, can be chili and garlic, can be sweet soy, etc). While some may prefer to eat their chicken hot, I like my Chicken Rice cold, as the jelly-like texture of the chicken skin compliments the soft melt-in-your-mouth flesh.
While there are many places in Sydney that sell Chicken Rice, my personal favourite chicken rice outlet in the city would have to be: Sayong Curry & Laska, 303 Pitt St (Pittsway Arcade), the foodcourt downstairs of Woolworths. For AUD$8, you get chicken rice, a soup, sauces, and a huge chunk of chicken (you can request leg or thigh). I have struggled to finish my chicken rice on a few occasions, despite my more-than-healthy appetite during lunch hours. I often find balancing a piece of chicken, a bit of rice, cucumber and sauce onto a spoon all a bit too much to take, when all I want to do (everytime I get my chicken rice) is to stick my face directly into the chicken, rice, soup and sauces, dislocate my jaws and swallow whole. As you eat it, the only thought that comes to you can only be: I do not want this plate of chicken to ever run out! If there is ever a healthy addiction, it would have to be the Chicken Rice Addiction!
So, next time you are wandering around the city during your lunch break pondering whether to get a sandwich, or a sandwich, why not give Chicken Rice a try?
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