Saturday, June 12, 2010

My favourite Chicken Rice

While Singaporeans and visitors to Singapore would know about the famous Singapore Hainanese Chicken Rice, I kindda miss the Cantonese Chicken Rice. I am not sure if there is a similar Cantonese Chicken Rice, but I know long long ago (not that long really), at the corner of Smith Street and Trengganu St (where the Sex Shop is now?) was a bustling stall selling the "steamed" or "boiled" Chicken Rice. And the stall only appeared in the evening, probably from 5pm.

Those were the days when the Art-Deco flats were still there, just across from where the stall was, by the side of the road. There would be queues to buy the Chicken Rice. And there were tables, many of them, laid out on the street, as what you would see on the other side of Smith St (now called the Food St).

It was the time when we poor young folks were dating and looking for some more "luxurious" for dinner. Ah a chicken rice dinner with two chicken wings (sometimes, the stall would not sell us, apparently being one of the popular items), soup, two plates of rice, with the Cantonese chilli sauce and maybe Kai-Lard (I cannot remember if they had - it is mustard, somehow that went well with Cantonese steamed or boiled chicken) - we were happy. And these days, that girlfriend turned wife often laments that she missed the Kai-Lard.

And yes, the "spare parts" (innards) which were just great to chew on - crunchy. Gizzards & Liver and yes, the almost transparent intestines. I wonder what happened to these intestines. One can no longer find them, not even in the market to bring home to cook up a great meal!

It is interesting that while on the streets, the Chicken Rice stall was flourishing with long queues of diners. When the Chinatown Food Centre came up and all the wonderful street hawkers had to move indoors, it started losing its customers. Would it be fengshui (it was located in a rather good position, next to the escalator)? or just customers getting more impatient or distracted by more stalls within a same area? Or a drop in customer service because the stall now had no tables of its own?

Ah, I still long for that chicken and its wonderful chilli sauce. Anyone knows if the stall still exists?