Motormouth From Ipoh – Asian Food & Travel Blog

Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice @ Maxwell Food Centre, Chinatown, Singapore – Voted as one of the best chicken rice on the island, with endorsements by local media and food critics, and even positive remarks from celebrity chef, Anthony Bourdain

Back to work and having mid week blues? No fear. Let Motormouth cures that for you with another food story. In fact, this will nicely round up the Singapore Street Food post from two days back.

Singapore’s a country that’s rich with influences from all over the world; most notably due to the cross-cultural exchanges between the region and intensive modernization effort to transform the small island into a financial powerhouse respected worldwide.

The same applies to the local cuisine in Singapore; while there are numerous parties (mostly political clowns) staking claims over petty ownership of street foods (read this for a LOL moment, seriously), the winner in this fiasco I guess would be the spectators, ie: foodies like us. It’s relatively easy to draw conclusions based on our personal experiences with chicken rice, satay, laksa, nasi lemak and so forth; hearty street foods that we have grown accustomed with since we were kids.

For today, let’s look at Hainanese chicken rice; a rice and chicken dish that holds a special place in my heart; owing to the fact that my late grandfather used to run a chicken rice stall in Ipoh way before I was born.

And yes, I am a Hainanese too.

Chinatown looks very modern now; yet retaining the old school charm of a heritage façade and more popular with tourists than anyone else. Kind of reminded me of Petaling Street in Kuala Lumpur, but better maintained and safer in a sense.

Maxwell Food Centre is still not as sterile as say, Food Republic in shopping malls or Lau Pa Sat within the vicinity, but the authenticity of the street food sold in the premise surpasses the other two.

I mentioned in my last post to avoid coming to Maxwell Food Centre’s Tian Tian Hainanese chicken rice stall on weekends or during lunch hour. You may just faint from seeing the snaking line of people; eager for a taste of some say over-rated chicken rice.

To me, at SGD3.50 per plate (about MYR9), over-rated or not, clearly the attention drawn by the raving reviews and gloating feedback has yet to affect the prices or even the attitude. But I judged them based on two visits; spanning few years apart.

So I could be wrong.

And yet, even second time around, I was still mesmerized by the sheer fragrance and taste of the chicken rice; every grain separated and retaining that marvelous texture; firm bite yet not too hard nor too soft and clumpy. The addition of a scoop of chicken oil over the rice prior to serving was the icing on the cake; infusing the rice with the essence of the chicken. If you’re on a strict diet, then you can at least take a break from the arduous (or ultimately futile) effort!

On to the chicken; although clearly this was not Ipoh’s style of smooth poached chicken served in “Nga Choy Gai” outlets, the meat does retain that tender yet firm bite; without being overcooked and too dry like chewing tree bark or undercooked, slivers of raw, bloodied meat.

The chili sauce deserves a mention here; the use of lime juice blended with red chillies, garlic and ginger sliced through the palate with an acerbic kick; quite unlike the normal version with vinegar instead, or worse; some lazier hawkers buying their supplies from the supermarket.

You can also order their bean sprouts or oyster sauce vegetables to accompany your portion of chicken rice. A plate of chicken rice starts from SGD3.50; and the price goes up incrementally with better parts like drumstick (SGD4.20), etc.

Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice (jump to their website HERE for a list of all their branches)
Stall #10, Maxwell Food Centre
Chinatown, Singapore.
Opens from 10.30am – 8.00pm daily. Closed on Mondays.
Take the purple line MRT (North-East Line) or blue line MRT (Downtown Line) and alight at Chinatown station. Follow the directions to Maxwell Food Centre, which faces the huge landmark of a temple; Buddha Tooth Relic Temple.

You Tiao from Stall #26 – At SGD0.60, this can be a good alternative while waiting for the chicken rice stall to open!

Traditional Tapioca Cake with grated coconut sweetened with palm sugar; and the other piece that is boiled to a very soft consistency; then rolled in coconut flakes. (about SGD0.50 per piece)

Chinatown in Singapore – From day until night, the area is buzzing with activities; but I don’t foresee the locals coming here as much. Just like how Malaysians tend to avoid Petaling Street nowadays.

With half of the week gone in a flash (thanks to the extended Raya weekend), don’t it make you just want to go all out this coming weekend for a taste of adventure, no matter where you are?

Motormouth might be further away from Ipoh now; and the longing for Ipoh food is growing stronger day by day (oh my Chee Cheong Fun, Dry Curry Mee, White Coffee and Liew Fun!), but don’t count me out just yet in supplying drool worthy shots and rants continuously.

Should you have any recommendations for food in Singapore, please please let me know. 🙂

*Other famous chicken rice names include Boon Tong Kee, Wee Nam Kee and Chatterbox in Meritus Mandarin Hotel on Orchard.