Chicking Eating House

Hainan chicken rice is one of the best things ever invented by man. In fact, it is the most appreciated contribution from the Hainanese community ever to humankind.

In Kuching, as in elsewhere, it's not difficult to find good Hainanese Chicken rice that rocks. One of the places that we often go back to is this one.

It took us about 4-5 times going there to actually realise that the name meant Chick King as in King of the Chicks. p/s I think that's his Royal sposs car there.

They've definitely made an effort to zhng the interior of the shop.


It even has it's own customised cooling system.

Simply ingenuous!

What else can you say to that, except, COOL.

SMART TIP NO.1 :
When you're there with a few friends, it pays to order for a group. Otherwise they will skimp on the chicken for one person.


They gave us a generous half a chicken for 3 persons.

The best part about Hainanese Chicken Rice is that they make the chicken look & taste as tender as fish.


SMART TIP NO.2
16 & 17 sucks. The brown onions on top give it a very bitter burnt taste.

I never thought much about the side dishes here. After all, we came here for the chicken. But Nee ordered their Thai Style Tofu (No. 12).

It came looking like this, which was pretty gorgeous. Fried crispy tofu in sweet sour sauce.

We took a bite & agreed that it was the best thing we've ever had in a long long while!

NEE: To be completely honest, this place would score about 7.5 to 8 out of 10. This is because like any Hainan Chicken eating places nowadays, somehow I find the chicken a little bland and tasteless. Somehow, the chickens are not as nice and sweet as it used to be. Sad ya. The vegie dishes always have the tendency to have burnt red onions topping. Other than that, everything else is nice. Definitely can try.

Post Christmas Crepes: A Recycling Project

Today is exactly one month to go before Christmas! Tis the season of joy - the joy of eating to be more exact. Yes, we're guilty. We've already started our year-end binge-ing two weeks ago. It started with a small family get-together, then it snowballed into an annual dinner & more family anniversaries. The snowball is still rolling, and we're still eating.

I am not worried about what to eat for Christmas. The worry is more with over-eating. And of course after every Christmas there will be plenty of leftovers. And the idea of throwing away food is not practiced in this part of the world. Growing up, we have always been constantly reminded by either our mothers or Sir Bob Geldof of the starving kids in Africa.

So this is a little Post-Christmas food recycling project.

Crepes:

170 gm of plain flour, sifted

1 cup of milk (can be low fat)

1 cup of water

2 no of large eggs

2 heaped tbsp of melted butter

1/2 teasp of salt

1/2 teasp of baking powder

some butter for the frying

1) Put the flour, salt, baking powder in a bowl and add milk and water gradually as you stir the mixture to a even batter.

2) Lightly beat eggs and add to batter. Continue stirring.

3) Add melted butter. Continue stirring to an even smooth batter. Strain through a sieve for any lumps.

4) Heat a 7 to 8 inch skillet. With medium fire, add 1/2 tbsp of butter. When butter bubbles, add a scoop of batter. Turn skillet slowly so that batter can flow evenly around the skillet into a thin round piece. Leave cooking.

5) Check after a min or two to see if the bottom is lightly browning. If the top bit looks cooked, i.e not wet, add filling and roll into a swiss roll like log. Dish out, fold the two sides down and place in a cupcake cup.

Suggested filling:

Leftover roast/steam/boil meat like chicken, beef or lamb

Vegies and Fruits like avocados, mangos, cucumber, tomatos

Mayonaise added with some lemon juice and condensed milk to enhance flavours

Sweet fillings like blueberry, strawberry, raspberry with fresh whipping cream or banana and red bean (my favourite)

Crepes is savoury so any sweet or savoury fillings are nice. I did mine over the weekend with chicken, mango and mayonaise. Greg says: 'Saliva coming out like waterfall.'

Mango Pudding

Mango puddings are famous yum cha desserts. We would generally finish up a yum cha session with this yummy goody.

This is an elusive dessert, well, at least it is to me. I had to make it four times to get to the way we like it. The first time was not mango-ey, second time not solid enough, third time not smooth enough. Greg almost begged me not to do it anymore. He is even eating mangoes in his sleep. Luckily, mangoes are lining along the streets of Kuching at this time of the year. So they are not overly expensive experiments.

Good ripe mangoes are the key to good mango puddings. I have tried so many types and even though it's hard it is to say so, Ting Pek Khing's Ming Khiong Garden has mangoes suitable for this purpose. They call it the Golden Mango, which is commonly seen in Australia during summer. This mango is so sweet and fragrant. And they are going fpr RM 8 to 10/kg. Awfully expensive Ting Pek Khing style!

200gm of mango puree

1 tbsp of lemon juice

1) Slice mango from bottom up (the fatter part where it hangs) to prevent pulp from developing.

Add lemon juice and puree with a hand held blender/chopper.

300 gm of evaporated milk

400 gm of water

125 gm of castor sugar (more if your mango is not so sweet)

3 tbsp of instant jelly

1 tsp of agar agar powder

1/2 tsp of vanilla

2) Put all ingredients in this group in a pot and heat up over medium fire, stirring along to melt sugar.

3) Right before boiling point, add puree. Continue stirring til mixture is hot and at boiling point. Turn off fire.

4) Cut some small mango cubes and add into the mixture. Scoop out and place into individual molds or ramekins. Cool before putting in fridge. Chill for at least 3 hours.

5) Serve with cream or evaporated milk in ramekins or dish out and place on individual plates.