A Hainan Chicken Rice Journey - Savoy, Mee & Greet, Cluck2Go, Side Chick, Green Zone, Tasty Food, Auntie Ping [Thoughts + Pics]

Little Fatty’s version is decent, but I dream of a Flock & Fowl opening up in Los Angeles.

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I think the best Hainan Chicken Rice in SoCal is actually in the OC at Baos Hog.

Not just in LA, in Northern California literally easier to pull hen’s teeth than to find a properly done Hainan style Chicken Rice with all the right components. We have access to variations in mixed forms and results such as

Cantonese approach

  • sometimes characterized by rice a roni looking very yellow rice, but a lot of chicken and stock flavor
  • More darker yellow looking chicken skin, using Cantonese “empress chicken” and call it a day (sometimes this works better than the BS fake Hainan chicken options)
  • a variant of a seasoned poached chicken, being passed off as Hainan Chicken Rice
  • one dipping sauce (not three) and usually they nail this down right which is the ginger scallion sauce, ubiquitous at Cantonese roasties deli shops (but even doing a good rendition of this is not as prevalent these days).
  • in SF Bay Area sometimes you can find a few Hong Kong cafe’s that do it better

Malaysian restaurants

  • looks like Hainan Chicken, but is resting in a pool of soy sauce base liquid that overwhelms the chicken, sometimes over decoration with something that looks like parsley with at times thick cucumber slices, ranges from edible (and if you set expectations very low) to forget it

Vietnamese restaurants

  • mostly Central Vietnamese style restaurants, look for Com Ga Hai Nam and generally these renditions are the most superior, at least in San Jose area, and you can even get versions with giblets (incredibly gamey livers though). One theory is that they use and source more natural tasting chicken, raised by local Vietnamese chicken farmers (not all of the restaurants, maybe a few) which is why they stand out all from the rest in terms of flavor and texture. And it works for what they do.

Thai restaurants (or Khao Mun Gai specific eateries)

  • there has been an unhealthy obsession with Khao Mun Gai last couple years (less so this year as the fad has faded a little in terms of hype), largely in part thanks to tech bro funding which turned a humble street dish into “fast but not efficient” food, like bento boxes. Hence you get poached and fried chicken versions and other funktastic combinations. Those who have not traveled or have eaten extensively might find it acceptable and while it certainly fills a niche and stomach space, is not destination chicken rice dining material.

Truth be told, I’ll take a plate of Ming Kee (San Francisco) soy sauce chicken rice plate anyday instead of any of the above, or double down and do empress chicken x soy sauce chicken rice plate with ginger scallion sauce, or 3 meat combo and throw in some pork, duck. Satisfaction level through the roof!

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This. So much this.

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Hi @J_L,

I had never heard of Flock & Fowl before, thanks for the recommendation. :slight_smile: I didn’t know Little Fatty did a version also. Thanks.

Is Flock & Fowl your favorite in the U.S.? :slight_smile:

Hi @beefnoguy,

Thanks for the great info about Northern California spots; sounds like it’s pretty mediocre up there as well.

We loved the visit to Ming Kee (thank you again!) :slight_smile: and yes, their Soy Sauce Chicken (with Ginger & Scallion Sauce) or the Pork Neck Charsiu or Roast Duck was so good! :blush:

Maybe one day we’ll get a version that matches what you all love about the Singaporean version.

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Flock and Fowl is Vegas based. It’s done well and chicken is a touch more cooked than Cluck2go.

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Ming Kee is one of my favorite places. They truly deserve more praise for what they are doing. Nobody to my knowledge in CA is doing HK BBQ this well (maybe the country??) I’ll take Ming Kee over a lot of things tbh.

Yet most of the customers are Canto locals and Chinese college students.

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This debate begs the question; what is everyone’s benchmark for authentic Hainan chicken rice? There are subtle regional differences in Asia.

For example this typically how it’s served in Malaysia - doused in lightly sweetened light soy sauce and topped with cilantro (and scallions). No toppings (fried garlic or scallions) over the rice. Ginger sauce, a very watery chili sauce and dark soy sauce.
image

And similar in Singapore it appears (pic of Chen Ji Hainanese Chicken Rice)

@Chowseeker1999 relatively easy solution to solve your chicken rice dilemma:

  1. Rice: Poach a whole chicken with sliced ginger and generous amount of scallions. Saute minced garlic, ginger with chicken fat. Add broth from poached chicken, sauteed mixture, 2 generous pinches of salt to rice and cook. Or just add this to rice image

  2. Chicken: Purchase a princess Empress (Kwai fei) chicken from your favorite roastie or Sea Harbor, Elite etc. Chop ala preferred chicken rice presentation

  3. Sauces: Request some ginger/scallion sauce from #2.
    Dilute image with water and lime. Or look for these bottled options

    image

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If you want to extend this Hainan Chicken Rice journey to include the Thai version than give some of these places a try…

Sticky Rice
Siam Sunset
LAX-C Express
Sanamluang (anyone tried their Khao Man Gai?)

I think the sauce at LAX-C is great. Incredibly balanced in sweet, salty, gingerly, and garlicky flavors. And that to-go table might just be one of the best in LA. The rice is slightly fragrant and the chicken is moist (not fancy).

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The problem lies in the execution of many Malaysian restaurants in Northern California, and frankly with the restaurants being jack of all trades themselves being part of the issue. I am not taking jabs on the native renditions in their respective homelands, just how they are done over here. Part of being a jack of all trades restaurant means it’s easier to take shortcuts and pay less attention to detail (versus being a specialist restaurant or eatery, or in the case of in SE Asia, a cooked food stall specialist), and this could happen for a various number of reasons.

And I have yet to meet a Singaporean or Malaysian expat in SF Bay Area extolling the virtues of our Jack of All Trades restaurants (let alone Jack in a Khao Mun Gai Tech Bro Hipster Chicken box…)

With the Chen Ji picture, you still see the chicken look the same the way it is, and the sauce is no doubt a chicken broth base with seasoning. However some of the Malaysian restaurants up here literally have it bathing or marinating in a much darker and murkier (and ominous looking) liquid where the meat is stained from the dark broth, and looks nothing like Chen Ji’s chicken. The worst is that some renditions actually taste dry and reheated, and they pour more sauce on top! The Malaysian example you posted looks more like Empress Chicken Cantonese style, so much cleaner in comparison.

Using the Ming Kee example, why do the roasties taste so damn good compared to other Canto BBQ roasties joints in town? Owner and master roaster/butcher Ming is an OG Hong Konger (vs Toishanese from Southern China for many other places) and he obviously trained classically. The recipes and execution speak for themselves. Ming Kee is not a jack of all trades place, they just do roasties and for those who want rice plates, scoop of rice, boiled cabbage, condiments and that’s it (basically adding accessories and options beyond the specialties). And they are also supported by a steady stream of locals mostly for take out. Higher turnover, and roasting happens multiple times per day. It’s a much simpler business model in a way that perpetuates itself. Using a competitor example locally: Cheung Hing (Northern California SF Bay Area) on the other hand has a few locations around and has expanded to do Canto Jack style menu in the Peninsula…aggressive and ambitious…with little regard to consistency and sometimes quality becomes roller coaster.

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Hmmmmmm… reminds me of…

image image

Chicken McHainan??

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thoughtfully executed as usual. my rankings differ, but a chacon son gout.

i was hoping to see dong nguyen & red chicken included.

Props to you - that’s a lot of poached bird. The number of expats from Singapore and Malaysia seems to be small and like a revolving door - of those that arrive, many return after a while.

I think this lack of a “critical mass” speaks to the small number of eateries offering food from that part of Asia. The economies over there have been relatively strong over the past four decades.

Furthermore, Singapore offers a very secure social contract with its citizens. Healthcare and their form of social security (Central Provident Fund, Employee Provident Fund in MY) are comparitively strong and flexible. The currency exchange rates are a major consideration as well (particularly for Malaysians).

And Singapore in particular is probably the safest nation in the world - Singaporeans feel very insecure here (this probably explains why a core population of Singaporean expats formed in Irvine of all places back in the 80s-90s).

These issues make moving to the LA hard and easier to consider moving back. But I think the linchpin issue is the lack of depth, breadth and quality of food options familiar to expats from that region. That revolving door of this particular expat population is a self-fulfilling consequence -
sparse offerings of average food.

We were very underwhelmed with the acar as well. I think M&G’s version is generally Indonesian. The typical Malysian version has an orange tone in the pickling liquid - turmeric and candlenuts add the flavor that was missing for us in this version. But we found the other dishes (including the chicken/rice) to be very good in general. It was the noise level in this place that makes me not want to return.

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Thanks @Sgee for the recipe to make it at home. :slight_smile:

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Hi @bulavinaka,

Thanks for the info and perspective on the ex-pat situation; good to know (and it makes sense).

Regarding your comment about Mee & Greet, yes! We experienced that, too. It was really loud, and on our 2nd and 3rd visits it was the worst: They were blaring music (hip hop / gangster rap) (Note: I love great hip hop), but it was blasting, with no sound dampening in the restaurant at all, echoing off the walls, making it really annoying to enjoy a meal, let alone try and have a conversation with friends.

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Hi @secretasianman,

Thanks. Ah, the reason we didn’t go to Red Chicken was reports by you and others IIRC had pointed out that the restaurant was more Thai than anything and that people weren’t that impressed. Seeing they had Thai Curry, Pad Thai, Thai Ice Coffee, etc., made it feel like it’d be the Thai interpretation, so we left that off.

Dong Nguyen: I actually tried that place once years ago and thought it was OK, but we also thought it’d fall in the Vietnamese interpretation of that dish. Thanks.

Sounds like if you want SG style Hainan rice, Savoy sucks but is as good as it’s gonna get?

I gotta wonder then if the Thai/VN versions of HCR
are better locally, given the Thai/VN population here.

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For sure there is some untapped potential and areas to explore.

Quite a few places that appear to be Vietnamese chicken specialist restaurants in Fountain Valley and Westminster, and searching Com Ga in yelp returns multiple results, some look legit enough from the pictures that might be fun to try, but keeping in mind it is the Vietnamese approach to Hainan (Hai Nam) chicken rice. Should they use range chicken like some places in San Jose, it will taste great. Or for those exploring in groups, order half a chicken as an entree, then get bowls of rice vs a plate. Same principle as Cantonese roasties…rice plate cuts are at times scraps or loose ends (not the best); you want the better cuts, get a whole bird or half to go, or in the case of pork specify the cut and let the butcher deal with the rest (or buy a slab and chop it yourself at home) for best results.

Not sure if Westminster area com ga places would have it, but up here we have Com Ga Roti, which is a roast chicken with at least a soy sauce base seasoning (one rendition I had was like soy sauce chicken), sometimes a bit dryer but can be quite delicious, and usually paired (if available) with tomato rice that can be quite delicious. It’s another plate worth exploring on the side.

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My baseline is Tian Tian and Ah-Tai hawker stalls in Singapore at Maxwell Centre. I’m not sure where the place you pictured is, but I don’t recognize that as the Singaporean style of HCR; the liquid broth is definitely more of a Malaysian preparation.

I know I’ve posted a picture of my meal from Ah-Tai before on here, but I ordered the combo that came with the gai lan, which is why mine was served over gai lan (and some broth). Here’s a picture of the basic HCR from Ah-Tai from another blogger:


Locally, the only place that has ever hit the spot for me was Grainivore, which was started by a Singaporean USC business school grad, and was open a little more than a year. I can say that their HCR was the only one in the same universe as that which can be found easily in SG.

Other regional styles are fine and all, but when you’re chasing a white whale they just tend to disappoint.

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