Saturday, October 15, 2005

Claypot Rice

Another boring day was salvaged by my colleague, who trooped me to Chinatown to try to find search for his favorite, long-lost claypot rice stall.

Things didn't bode well at first as withing a few seconds of stepping on the bus, heavy rain started pouring down. After some shortcuts and running through the rain, we finally made it to Chinatown Food Complex Food Center, stall #02-102...

The stall had the clean and efficient look of a well run enterprise, and also a sign proudly saying that there may be up to an hour's wait during peak periods. Fortunately we were there during a sleepy weekday lunch, so our claypot rice for two arrive in around 20 minutes.
And there it was, baked to perfection. My friend had advertised that the chicken in this dish was so tender 'it fell off your chopsticks' - and I have to say he's pretty close to the truth. Add a salty tang of salted fish, the slight sweetness of chinese sausage and crunchy kai lan. Yum!

The trick to eating this is to take out all the chicken and accompaniments out of the steaming claypot, then mix some dark soy sauce, shredded spring onions and coriander and a little oil into the rice. Then just spoon the rice into your bowl and enjoy with the chicken, etc.

Next trip will be bah kut teh at Rangoon Road!

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