Eatery Name: Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice 天天海南鸡饭
Pricing: $$/5 (We paid a total of S$14.10 for 3 pax)
Food: ♥♥♥/5
Ambience: ♥/5
Service: ♥♥♥/5
Website: http://tiantianchickenrice.com
Location: 3 Shenton Way, #02-11 Shenton House Singapore 068805
Operating Hours: Monday - Friday 10:00-16:00; Closed on Public Holidays
Gordon Ramsay lost to Tian Tian Hainese Chicken Rice...
After all that hoo-ha over the Gordon Ramsay's challenge against Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice, have you ever wonder what happens to this chicken rice afterwards?
Hainanese Chicken Rice is considered one of the "national dish" in Singapore and is frequently served at international expositions and global events abroad and in Singaporean-styled restaurants overseas. It is also amongst one of the few dishes served on Singapore Airlines flights.
Hainanese Chicken Rice is sold practically almost anywhere in Singapore - from school canteens to food centres and even restaurants. Some stalls serve other small dishes apart from Chicken Rice including braised dark hard boiled eggs, chicken liver, Tofu, Kai-Lan with oyster sauce whilst most stalls do serve a complimentary small bowl of plain chicken stock soup alongside with the Chicken Rice.
The dish is prepared first by making the chicken broth via boiling the chicken bones in water and marinating the chicken by rubbing the ginger and garlic over the chicken. The marinated chicken is then submerged in a pot of boiling water before other ingredients are added into the water. The rice is cooked together with the chicken broth and stock. Once the chicken is cooked, it is immersed into a tub of cold water for a few minutes in order to stop the cooking process and ensure that the meat will remain tender whereas the skin is chewy. The chilli sauce is then prepared with the fresh lime juice.
To digress a little, there was a story which I heard from my dad as to how the immersing of cooked chicken in cold water method was first implemented. Long time ago, there was a hawker selling chicken rice. In those days, the policemen were corrupted and would extort money from the hawkers. This hawker hated the police but still paid up whenever he was extorted.
One fine day, the hawker could take it no longer and decided to seek vengeance for himself after so long. He anticipated that the policemen would drop by his stall to extort his money and compel him to provide them with free meals that afternoon. Hence he prepared his chicken rice as usual. He boiled his chicken and dipped the chicken into the toilet bowl water a few times after it was cooked and served the dish to the police shortly afterwards. To his amazement, the policemen were all full of praises of his chicken rice and complimented that his culinary skills have improved. Henceforth, the hawker would dip the cooked chicken in cold water (not toilet bowl) whenever he serves his food and his business prospered greatly.
I wonder if there is any truth in that story, but oh well, I do find it amusing.. LOL
Operating Hours: Monday - Friday 10:00-16:00; Closed on Public Holidays
Gordon Ramsay lost to Tian Tian Hainese Chicken Rice...
After all that hoo-ha over the Gordon Ramsay's challenge against Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice, have you ever wonder what happens to this chicken rice afterwards?
Brief Introduction to Hainanese Chicken Rice
Hainanese Chicken Rice is considered one of the "national dish" in Singapore and is frequently served at international expositions and global events abroad and in Singaporean-styled restaurants overseas. It is also amongst one of the few dishes served on Singapore Airlines flights.
Hainanese Chicken Rice is sold practically almost anywhere in Singapore - from school canteens to food centres and even restaurants. Some stalls serve other small dishes apart from Chicken Rice including braised dark hard boiled eggs, chicken liver, Tofu, Kai-Lan with oyster sauce whilst most stalls do serve a complimentary small bowl of plain chicken stock soup alongside with the Chicken Rice.
The dish is prepared first by making the chicken broth via boiling the chicken bones in water and marinating the chicken by rubbing the ginger and garlic over the chicken. The marinated chicken is then submerged in a pot of boiling water before other ingredients are added into the water. The rice is cooked together with the chicken broth and stock. Once the chicken is cooked, it is immersed into a tub of cold water for a few minutes in order to stop the cooking process and ensure that the meat will remain tender whereas the skin is chewy. The chilli sauce is then prepared with the fresh lime juice.
To digress a little, there was a story which I heard from my dad as to how the immersing of cooked chicken in cold water method was first implemented. Long time ago, there was a hawker selling chicken rice. In those days, the policemen were corrupted and would extort money from the hawkers. This hawker hated the police but still paid up whenever he was extorted.
One fine day, the hawker could take it no longer and decided to seek vengeance for himself after so long. He anticipated that the policemen would drop by his stall to extort his money and compel him to provide them with free meals that afternoon. Hence he prepared his chicken rice as usual. He boiled his chicken and dipped the chicken into the toilet bowl water a few times after it was cooked and served the dish to the police shortly afterwards. To his amazement, the policemen were all full of praises of his chicken rice and complimented that his culinary skills have improved. Henceforth, the hawker would dip the cooked chicken in cold water (not toilet bowl) whenever he serves his food and his business prospered greatly.
I wonder if there is any truth in that story, but oh well, I do find it amusing.. LOL
Review
Without further ado, I shall commence my review with Tian Tian. I finally get to taste Tian Tian @ Shenton House as the queue is miraculously short this afternoon. Normally, the shop would be experiencing a high influx of lunch crowd and seating can be a great problem. We only learnt that we can beat the queue by calling the shop to pre-order in advance.. The contact details are provided in the name card below:Ambience
Tian Tian @ Shenton House is a normal eatery situated in a very old building. There is nothing special in that building just that it is air-conditioned.
The signboard outside...
The usual lunch crowd and annoying long queue
What We Ordered
Half Chicken + 3 plates of oily rice (SGD14.10 in total)
Le' Chicken
The skin is smooth and chewy whereas the meat is tender and juicy. I realized that Tian Tian uses really meaty chickens for their dish as other chicken rice stalls normally use chicken with more bones that meat. The light soy sauce that comes with the chicken is not too saltish and complements the chicken really well. Also, I like the other sauces that is provided - chilli sauce, garlic sauce and dark soya sauce. Chicken Rice is never complete without chilli sauce and dark soya sauce in my opinion!!
Le' Rice
The rice is glistening due to the layer of oil coated on it which makes its appearance pretty appetizing, and we can smell its light fragrance before it reaches our mouth... However, I think the rice was a little undercooked today as it is a tad to hard in texture. The soup complements the chicken and rice pretty well but its not the main emphasis here...
Overall
Chicken Rice is like a Singaporean's staple food. Whenever you are spoilt for choice or do not know what to eat, ordering a plate of chicken rice would be the safest bet as the taste is quite standard throughout.
However, da Rabbit thinks that chicken rice served with Acar (preserved vegetables) would be ideal ♥♥♥
The standard 1 pax portion of chicken rice served by Maxwell branch
I still prefer eating the chicken rice from Maxwell somehow. It tasted more flavourful (more oily and unhealthy) in my opinion...
Conclusion
The standards of Tian Tian is considered well-kept throughout the years which I have patronised them. Although sometimes the rice might be undercooked but the taste would not be too significantly affected. Hence, I will still patronise Tian Tian again when I am out of foodie ideas ~
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P.S.
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