This photo is owned by callmecreation.com and can be found on Instagram
I was here was in January. Then February I was in Hong Kong. Then the following month I was in Bangkok. I will be writing and uploading photos from those trips in the suceeding entries in the next few days.
I just came back from Singapore on 22 June after a week-long team meet-up/training.
Anyway, whenever I am in Singapore, the first thing I look for is chicken rice.
Tong Fong Fatt Chicken Rice. This photo is owned by callmecreation.com and can be found on @callmecreation on Instagram
The best one, so far, is Tong Fong Fatt, which can be found in Maxwell and Amoy hawkers centre. And I’ve eaten a number of chicken rice around Singapore since 2014 so that says something.
I find Tian Tian overrated. It’s supposedly the best that Singapore has to offer and it was praised by the late Anthony Bourdain. Boon Tong Kee is blah. Wee Nam Kee in United Square is good but not as good as Tong Fong Fatt.
Wee Nam Kee chicken rice at United Square. This photo is owned by callmecreation.com and can be found on @callmecreation on Instagram
Tong Fong Fatt is heaven 💕 for less than SGD 5 (PHP 189). I always make the trek to the aforementioned hawkers centers just to have my chicken rice fix.
What makes it magical? It’s supposedly just poached chicken but its meat is not bland. The skin melts in you mouth; it’s so good that you no longer care about the gazillion of calories it will deposit to your hips. I don’t know what they do to make it juicy and savory at the same time… Its umami taste cannot be succintly described by my mere words. There must be some kind of witchcraft going on there. Because I tried steaming, poaching, and cooking the whole chicken in a rice cooker (and all the heresy that comes with it), but it has never come out this way. However I cooked it, the meat comes out dry and tasteless.
And the rice 😋—the Tong Fong Fatt rice can hold on its own. Traditionally, the rice is cooked using the broth from the steamed chicken. I’ve been doing that whenever I cook chicken rice at home but I couldn’t bring out the umami taste that Tong Fong Fatt has. It’s already kanin-ulam rolled into one. There must be some kind of witchcraft, alright.
Tip: Go there at 2 pm-ish to avoid the lunch crowd. It can get really hot at the hawkers centre. That’s why I have late lunch breaks when I work in Singapore.
Warning: You can easily gain weight if you eat this regularly. I don’t have empirical evidence to support my claim but at the end of the week of bingeing on that thing, my pants have gotten tighter.
Because of my love for chicken rice, I’ve spent countless hours experimenting how to cook it best. My chicken rice is very far from Tong Fong Fatt level but can help me get a quick fix.
My homemade chicken rice. This photo is owned by callmecreation.com and can be found on @callmecreation on Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/p/Beeqa7Zl3SC/?igshid=1r4mqfei8gta0
I think I need to be an apprentice at Tong Fong Fatt because the NTUC chicken rice method of cooking that I followed but continue to tweak is… Still so wrong. 🤣
UPDATE: I found Adam Liaw’s version of this dish and I think this is much better and makes a lot more sense. I will try it this weeekend. I gotta get myself those poultry hooks 🐔