An old favourite: Chicken Rice

Simple and Good

Update July 2025: Still as good. Do get extra soup. I don't know how something so clear can be so flavorful without tasting artificial. And add the extras, eggs and bean curd are good add-ons.

Man, I do need to be more regular in posting. 2018 is almost at an end and there are only two new posts up. Sad. Hope to do better in 2019; fingers crossed.

Anyway, a new year is coming and there is not better time than the end of the year to revisit old favorites.

Speaking of old, this chicken rice place is old. Not in the antique sense, more along the lines of personal chronology. I've been frequenting this place since primary school in the 1990s. A lot has changed since but this old-school flavours remain true through the passage of time.

It is a wonder that something so simple - chicken and rice - can be so good. The current operator is the 3rd generation after he picked it up from his father who took over from his father. You know the plate filled with food in front of you is going to be good if the family can go on for three generations and counting.

My usual order is simple, rice with extra chicken. They now offered lor bak (deep-fried pork rolls [yums]), braised eggs, tofu and other sides to go with the main dish. For this time, I stuck with the basics and added on a lor bak roll.

To my mind, chicken rice is like pizza. In pizza, the bread is the main attraction, lousy bread means lousy pizza. Likewise, chicken rice too. In this case, the rice is "da bomb".

There's a famous bread manufacturer whose tagline goes "So good you can event eat it on its own", well, it's the same thing here. The rice is that good. Fluffy, fragrant and flavourful. A bowl of rice here is airy and light (no sticky bits), fragrant with hints of ginger and pandan and full of chicken flavour. I suspect the rice is cooked with chicken fat to give it that fowl punch. Definitely no foul play here.

Doused the rice with the free-flow house-made chili sauce and thick-dark soy sauce and you can really go through plate after plate of starchy goodness. It pairs perfectly well with the well-cooked chicken and lor bak.

Oh. don't forget the free chicken soup which comes with every order. Although thin (it's not a broth), it does a good job of providing some hot refreshment to cut through the richness of the rice and chicken.

I have often heard that old is gold, for this particular humble dish, it is surely true. Get your plate of this goodness here: Wen Hang Hainan Chicken Rice, 63, Lebuh Cintra, George Town, Penang. https://goo.gl/maps/STDQF5ejj9N2
#makanalls