Pin Sheng Chicken Rice (品勝滑雞飯), Bukit Merah Central Food Centre

Finally got to try Pin Sheng Chicken Rice (#02-51 Bukit Merah Central Food Centre, 163 Bukit Merah Central). If you didn't know what the fuss was about with this stall, word was that the proprietor used to be the head chef at Boon Tong Kee.

All drumsticks today. Meat's exceptional. Smooth and easily slurped off the bone. Reminded me of the chicken from Margaret Drive Chicken Rice. That one that used to be call Sin Kee. 

Tried their char siew and they turned out not bad. They don't look the nicest and it's definitely not the well caramelised and glazed variety that many prefer. This one was unassumingly tender with a light smoky sweet sauce.

Rice was darker than most. Portion feels a little small. Not bad tasting. Fantastic with their lime-y garlicky chilli sauce.

Will come back.

Chicken rice from Food Republic @ Breadtalk IHQ

That's the cheapest $5.50 plate. Not bad tasting. Portion was a little small. The chilli was a little more sweet than it was lime-y.

Revisiting Oriental Kopi @ Bugis Junction

We've been wanting to come back to the local branch of Oriental Kopi. As far as we could tell, there wasn't much difference from their Malaysian counterparts.

Think I like their iced kopi better than the hot one. I get the impression that those iced ones seem to be more robust.

Wanted to have a go with their delicious chicken rice and the lime-y chilli here. Couldn't discern any difference between the one in Malaysia and this one so...as far as I was able to tell, they're both kinda equally good.

Dry mee siam's not bad. It has the same texture as their other bee hoon.

The other thing we wanted to try was their rojak. Underneath the blanket of crushed peanuts were cucumber, turnip, guava and pineapple. I'm not a fan of a couple of things. The rojak sauce wasn't great. And then there's the crunchy you tiao which were like biscuits rather than fried dough fritters.

Water Gate Chicken Rice (水門雞飯), Soy Street, Mongkok

Little did we expect to eat Thai chicken rice in Hong Kong (G/F, 21C Soy Street, Mong Kok, Hong Kong, tel : +852 2809 2918). What got us intrigued was likely a combination of them being featured on social media and that we noticed their queue out at the actual shop a couple of times we passed by. 

Not bad tasting. No qualms eating again. It's not exactly the same as the Singapore version but the flavour profile wasn't very different too. Got the combi plate with both poached and fried chicken. The bunch of stuff at 5 o'clock are called giblets on the menu and it consisted of some chicken blood curd, gizzards and intestines. Gizzards were hard and chewy.

Both sauces on the side were nice.

Tried the wagyu boat noodle out of curiosity. According to them it's A5.

Could tell that it was nice fatty beef but I don't think I tasted the A5 in it. Their egg noodle option for the bowl was mee pok rather than the mee kia we were imagining. Broth was sweet, savoury and peppery - not bad tasting but also nowhere in the leagues of what we consider great boat noodle broth.

Decent cha yen.

Xin Man Tang HK Roasted (新满堂港式烧腊), Circuit Road

Xin Man Tang's located at the same coffeeshop as NKS Indian Muslim Food (18B Circuit Road) from a few months back. They're basically a roast meats, chicken rice and wanton noodle stall. Pretty decent tasting greasy plate of chicken rice (I got 鸡尾) here with a lime-y garlicky chilli. The char siew was pretty darn good with the fatty bits and sweet char on the surface.

Dong Dong Hainanese Chicken Rice (東東海南雞飯), People's Park Food Centre

Came across Dong Dong Hainanese Chicken Rice (#01-1110 People’s Park Food Centre, 32 New Market Road) in a recent trip to People's Park. They're apparently a small chain run by the group with brands like Koo Kee Yong Tow Foo and Steamed Society/Gourmet under their umbrella. 

There's a pretty distinctive sesame oil flavour in their saucing for the chicken. Bird was slurp off the bone tender. Rice was a little light on the salt which meant that it's easier pairing with their garlicky lime-y chilli. I thought the pandan-y cabbage/chicken soup was pleasant. Don't mind coming back. 

Chicken rice from Shun Feng Roasted Delights (顺沣港式烧腊)

That's chicken rice with char siew. 😬 Not bad tasting per se and nice lime-y garlicky chilli. The one I prefer and think is better in this vicinity is still Fu Xiang Chicken Rice.

Another chicken rice from Xiang Ji Hainanese Chicken Rice, Porridge and Noodle (香記海南雞飯, 粥, 面)

Been a while since the last time I ate at Xiang Ji. Ended up ordering almost the same thing. Except that this time I got poached chicken thigh instead of the "roasted" one. Here's a picture of a local happy meal. 😬

Back at Ming Kee Chicken Rice (明记鸡饭)

Been a long time since I last had chicken rice at Ming Kee (Kim San Leng Coffee Shop, #01-522, 511 Bishan Steet 13). Taste was like I remembered it. Great flavouring in the rice, tender chilled chicken, a nice burn from their chilli and fragrant dark soy sauce. But otherwise I'm getting the distinct impression that the single serving portion was noticeably smaller than in the past. Pretty sure of it. Seems like they've also done away with the plastic utensils.

Recently at 无名海南鸡饭 (Wu Ming Hainanese Chicken Rice)

We were back at Wu Ming Hainanese Chicken Rice recently. A few things definitely have changed. For a start, the chap who previously peppered his sentences with '他妈的' did not today. 😂 Or rather, he didn't utter a single word the whole time we were there. Rice no longer has the pandan flavour I remembered from the last time and appears to be a little dryer. The chilli that I remembered being at an off balance sweetness was garlicky this time round. The latter two ended up being a fortuitous pairing on hindsight. Today's soup was a pretty good chicken and corn soup. Good because I finished it and I usually aren't into soup with corn.

Back with roasted birds at Tong Kee and their stoner lad taking orders

Today's experience with Tong Kee was kinda mediocre.

We asked if they could debone the chicken and the stoner kid taking orders said they could. We ordered three portions of thigh and drumstick deboned. We asked for some eggs with that order as well. Chicken came with bones. 🤨

For some reasons, he forgot to relay our order of eggs. 😒

Today's rice was dry-ish, clumpy and waxy. 😮‍💨 Not the standard that I remember from them. Good thing there was their smoky sweet sauce and lime-y chilli to get me through.

Yong Kiang Chicken Rice (永強鸡饭), Ubi

Yong Kiang Chicken Rice (1st Stop Food Junction coffeeshop, Blk 3014 Ubi Road 1) is in the same coffeeshop as Mei Mei Roast and Da Sheng Minced Pork Noodle. What piqued me about them was the minced pork stuffed fried tau kwa which...isn't something that one normally finds in chicken rice stalls. Said tau kwa was slightly crusty edged with meat stuffings which was lightly flavoured with five spice. The chicken thigh I got today was a little boney but the rice had pretty good flavouring. Chilli seems more vinegary than lime-y.

The one with the peanut sauce from No Ordinary Chicken

This was the peanut sauce topping at No Ordinary Chicken. Tasted exactly like satay sauce. Mildly spicy, and I mean really mild, some sweetness and pretty nutty. If they could find a way to keep the both the bird and the rice moist, it could have been pretty good. I prefer the shallot one from the last time.

Shenton Way Golden Bridge Roasted Chicken Rice (珊頓道金橋燒臘雞飯), Jalan Bukit Merah

I've been recommended to try Shenton Way Golden Bridge Roasted Chicken Rice (Fu Zhu 132 Coffee Shop, 132 Jalan Bukit Merah) from back in the era when they were popular at Phillip Street. Never got around to trying their roast meats until now.

I don't remember the last time I ordered 鸡腿 and was served the entire leg with the thigh (鸡尾). This and char siew and an egg for $5.50 at that. The meaty bird was reasonably tender, tasty and I believe is roasted and not fried. Char siew was nicely flavoured with red fermented bean curd paste, not the red tasteless dye of the old school variety. Rice was adequately flavoured and works pretty well with their chilli.

Not the top of my list for great chicken rice but not being at the top doesn't diminish the quality already there. No qualms coming back for more.

The stall also serves a variety of zhi char styled gravy-ed noodles. Wanted to get ee mian but the proprietor convinced me that their hor fun was worth giving a go. This was it with a duck leg (鸭腿 - the whole leg like the chicken) at a reasonable $6. Light smokiness in the rice noodles in light savoury sauce and was good with their pickled green chilli. Enjoyed it more than I thought I would.

Sin Kee Famous Chicken Rice.Fish Porridge (新記馳名雞飯.鱼生粥), Mei Ling Food Centre

This was kinda where it truly began for me with the old Margaret Drive chicken rice. Sin Kee Famous Chicken Rice. But that old Sin Kee and the current one (#02-22 Mei Lin Food Centre, 159 Mei Chin Road) aren't the same. It's also not the same with another current Sin Kee at the current Margaret Drive Hawker Centre. There's a more complicated history behind the brand which I'm not going into in this post.

This one has a different proprietor at the helm and a smaller stall. Rice was a little wet but still grainy and great flavour from their stock. I could have almost believed that this was a replica of the old Sin Kee but for one thing I noticed. The chicken wasn't as tender. Not that this wasn't any good. It just wasn't the same.

No Ordinary Chicken, Beo Crescent Food Centre

Masala Kitchen has quietly folded just as it had appeared and in its place, is No Ordinary Chicken (#01-81 Beo Cresecent Food Centre, 38A Beo Crescent). They're technically a chicken rice stall, albeit not of the common local chicken rice variety that most of us are familiar with. What they do here is mostly grilled chicken for now with a variety of options for sauces/toppings accompanied with steamed white rice and a chilled salad on the side.

This topping was the shallot which was in all likelihood their rendition of sambal matah because I couldn't see it being inspired by anything else. Dominant flavour is lemongrass and onions. There's tanginess with a subtle sweetness and savoury oil richness. I kinda enjoyed this.

Lynns Food & Beverage, Jalan Tan Hiok Nee, Johor Bahru

We noticed the chicken rice from Lynns Food & Beverage (31 Jalan Tan Hiok Nee, Bandar Johor Bahru, 80000 Johor Bahru, tel : +60 12-708 3048) the last time we were in the vicinity and told ourselves we'd come back and check them out. You may wonder what made us pay attention to chicken rice from such a nondescript looking location. Well, they were served in folded paper boats.

We got distracted also by some of the kueh kueh and had an order of their kuih dadar. These rolls had a nice pandan aroma. The coconut stuffings were kinda dry rather than "juicy" and soaked in gula melaka like we had imagined.

Chicken rice was competently done and the portion was pretty generous. Rice was sufficiently greasy and flavoured adequately. There was a good portion of poached chicken, some pickles to cut through the grease and a lime-y chilli. I don't mind coming back just for this.

Milo gao wasn't as gao as we imagined but it's pretty nice.