Hey Hive!
Now that a lot of people here have already gotten vaccinated, I'm very happy to hear that Singapore is now allowing in-house dining again but obviously you have to be vaccinated. But since there aren't any restrictions this allows us to try out different food places again! Recently, the local government even announced that we don't have to wear masks anymore but I've become accustomed to it and to maintain personal hygiene I'll still continue wearing masks in public spaces.
Anyway, we were recently in the area of a famous hawker centre here in Singapore and if you've been here before you'd know that hawker food is quintessential local fare that is both delicious and affordable! It's basically an open-air food court with lots of stalls specialising in 1 or 2 dishes, and some of these stalls have been around for generations or even earned Michelin Stars!
I've written about hawker food lots of times (more recently here) and it is hands down some of our favourite food to eat, so Sean and I have been exploring different hawker centres and trying different stalls! And recently, we visited one of the most famous hawker centres in Singapore - Maxwell Food Centre!
Source: NEA
I'm not sure what makes Maxwell so famous, but I guess it doesn't hurt that it's in a pretty central location near Chinatown so you'd find many tourists and visitors there. There are other hawker centres in the area too but Maxwell is probably the biggest one there as well.
There middle of the hawker centre is a really loooong aisle of tables sandwiched between 2 lanes of stalls.
And there are lots of stalls on either side of that middle aisle as well. You'd be spoilt for choice in terms of food and drink options here that's for sure!
Anyway, one of the most famous stalls here is definitely this chicken rice shop called Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice. In fact this stall was also voted the Best Chicken Rice stall in Singapore and has won a ton of awards! It's also listed on Michelin Guide and is hugely popular. Thankfully there wasn't much of a queue when we went during brunch time, but we did see a group of tourists being led by a local guide explain that this was probably the most famous chicken rice stall in Singapore.
So there were quite high expectations of this chicken rice going in. If you're unfamiliar, chicken rice is considered the national dish of Singapore consisting of poached chicken and seasoned rice, served with chilli sauce and cucumber slices. It sounds simple but is actually a very nuanced dish and the rice is cooked together with the chicken so that it's infused with the chicken and seasoning flavours. If it's cooked right, you could eat the rice on its own and it'll be delicious!
Source: Honeycombers
We've had some pretty good chicken rice before, but haven't really found a definite "best chicken rice" yet. Now I've actually tried this chicken rice before quite a few years ago and tbh it wasn't that fantastic. I couldn't remember the taste exactly but I recall being quite unimpressed. But I was willing to give them another shot.
And with their shop spanning 2 stalls in the hawker centre, they had to be pretty good. The queuing system here was pretty efficient; you'd order and pay at the first stall and go to collect at the other stall.
We initially thought there was only going to be white/steamed chicken but Sean was happy to find out they had roasted chicken too so we ordered that to share.
And to be honest it was quite underwhelming, especially for $6! The chicken was nice and tender and juicy at least, but the rice was not as flavourful as I would've liked. It tasted kinda bland compared to other chicken rice we've had that's for sure. I think the chicken rice I wrote about previously at another hawker centre was so much better.
I wasn't expecting to be blown away by this since I've already been disappointed with it last time, but this experience definitely cemented it. Tian Tian is not as great as everyone says it is and tbh other stalls deserve more credit and recognition. Maybe they got more complacent since they're so renowned but it's a shame that this is what tourists will think of Singapore's chicken rice. Not that it's bad, but it could be so much better! This is just overpriced and overhyped imo.
After that we went to get a drink of honey grass jelly which tasted a little funny since it was a budget honey syrup but still kinda refreshing.
And don't worry because that's not all we ate at Maxwell since the chicken rice was so disappointing. We did try more food but I think I'll leave that for the next post. Tune in next week to see what other snacks we try!
Thanks so much for reading!
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Posted via foodiesunite.net