Monday, January 29, 2007

Chin Chin Eating House, 19 Purvis Street

Chin Chin Eating House, Purvis Street
Chin Chin Eating HouseLocated near to the Beach Road end of Purvis Street (across the road from Yet Con), this old school coffee shop serves Hainanese food in the form of various stir frys, braises as well as chicken rice (both roasted chicken and boiled variety). These guys are one of the eateries known for  chicken rice amongst other things. The locale in this area between Bugis and Beach Road is also a hub of chicken rice stalls. Competition is about and Chin Chin lools to be doing better than the next door, also another Hainanese coffee shop that too sells chicken rice.

We got ourselves a serving of their chicken rice for two along with stir fried sliced fish in black bean sauce and Hainanese pork chop. Does anyone know what makes Hainanese pork chop distinctively Hainanese?

Chin Chin Eating House, chickenChin Chin Eating House, sliced fish black bean saucesliced fish in black bean sauce

Chin Chin Eating House, hainanese pork chopHainanese pork chop

Chicken rice here was pretty regular tasting. Not outstanding as far as I could tell. The rice wasn't fluffy and was little dry. Wouldn't call it bad - just unremarkable. Still it seemed to be the the thing to be getting here as evidenced by the neighbouring tables. The sliced fish in black bean sauce disappointed with their sauce. There wasn't much of that fermented black bean flavour. The portions of the fish were generous though and tasted pretty fresh.

Chin Chin's pork chops shone in comparison with the other dishes. The fried pork were not sliced overly thin and had a tasty crust. My only gripe was that it didn't taste freshly fried. The total cost of for this dinner plus two lime juices came to $22.
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3 comments:

  1. AnonymousWednesday, January 31, 2007 3:37:00 pm

    my man, when did you ever become a food critic..

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  2. DWednesday, January 31, 2007 4:29:00 pm

    A lot Hainanese in the colonial past worked as cooks for caucasians. As such, they were "trained" to create Western style dishes. The Hainanese pork chop is such a hybrid-fusion (if I dare so use the word "fusion" haha) that was created merely out of circumstance rather than choice (you can tell I'm not a fan of food touted as "fusion"). It exhibits the Western elements of a fried porkchop, a tomato-based sauce, chips/fries and mixed vegetables, although served in almost an Eastern stir-fry manner.

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  3. LiquidShaDowWednesday, January 31, 2007 7:14:00 pm

    @ D
    Colbar would be a good example of their cuisine I believe. Fusion in food can be a dangerous thing.....lol, but I've had some which I enjoyed so I'm not adversed against them. :)

    @ gavin
    I guess I was in some ways a silent one. Now I have a media to put the thoughts into words. Are we acquainted btw?

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