30 August 2008

Hainanese Chicken Rice Balls at Chop Chung Wah

The herd mentality is works pretty well in finding good food anywhere, in Asian countries at least. While in Melaka, I spotted an unassuming kopi-tiam that was filled with customers and had people queuing out in the open.

The herd mentality naturally suggests that there is something good there. So I went in for look...

The full house of customers can't be wrong, so I sat down to order what everybody else ordered...

Ok, so I wasn't exactly alone to have ordered 2 chickens. Anyway, I am here to talk about how different and good this chicken rice is from the Singaporean version.

Starting off with the chicken, the texture of the meat was a different firm, juicy and had that natural sweetness only found in free range chickens. There was significantly less fat under the skin too. The sauce drizzled all over the meat gave a nice fragrance of sesame oil to it.

The ping-pong ball-sized rice balls were heavenly. At first bite, it was literally a burst of flavors. There was an extra oomph that was distinctly from the chicken fat that went into the making of the rice. Plus, it was such a joy to eat them, I wish didn't have to limit myself from having one too many.

Overall, this is probably one of the best chicken rice ever.

On a side note, there is another chicken rice balls restaurant chain (with 2 branches) by the name of A'Famosa Chicken Rice Balls (or something like that) that's more atas. Heard they aren't as fantastic as expected according to some who have tried. So don't go for substitutes, go for Chung Wah!

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