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Hainanese Chicken Rice

by Jing on 2010/05/03 in Asia, North America

Ever since coming back from Malaysia two months ago, I’ve been dying to find a satisfying plate Hainanese chicken rice in Toronto Canada.  Known simply as chicken rice, this beloved dish celebrates national status in both Singapore and Malaysia, where it has become mainstream with franchises specializing only in chicken rice. Once you’ve experienced a mouthful of jelly-like chicken that melts and slips around in your mouth, it isn’t surprising why this is such a popular dish.

Chicken rice for newbs consists of cuts of chicken topped on flavoured rice, accompanied with chicken soup, cucumbers, and chili sauce. Don’t judge by appearances alone, as the chicken has gone through a rigorous and precisely timed cooking process known only to a select few chicken rice masters. With a large boiling pot of specially seasoned stock, the chicken is placed inside to slowly cook as the pot of stock is turned off and left to cool down. Timed precisely, the slowly cooked chicken is removed and immediately placed into a bucket of cold iced water. This is to prevent the chicken from continuing to cook while locking in the moistness and jelly-like state of the chicken. Sliced and accompanied atop a helping of flavorful oily rice, literally rice mixed with chicken stock  oil and sometimes coconut milk, the chicken rice becomes an excellent meal on a hot summer day. Mix/dip in the the signature chili sauce, and the chicken rice adds a new dimension of flavor and slippery satisfaction.

Hainanese chicken rice originates from China’s island province, Hainan Dao, otherwise known as the Hawaii of China. But as Chinese Hainanese migrants moved into and around South East Asia, chicken rice evolved into a naturally better dish. Mixing with ethnic diversity and tastes of various cultures, you now have a dish eaten by everyone in any number of styles: Malay, Singaporean, Thai, old school Hainan style, and the new chicken rice ball frenzy (the rice is really shaped into a rice ball the size of a tennis ball!).

My chicken rice scouting has led me to several locations in Toronto Canada. Though not as jelly-like and slippery as it ought to be, and with a side of chili that mildly resembles the real thing, these are the closes t ones I’ve come across. Looks like my satisfaction might only be quenched back in South East Asia.

Know of any other Hainanese chicken rice finds in Toronto?! Haven’t tried it? Here are some local suggestions:

Restauran Malaysia – 815 Major Mackenzie Drive East, Richmond Hill
Lion City – 1177 Central Parkway West, Mississauga
Gourmet Garden Restaurant – 4465 Sheppard Avenue, Scarborough
South Asia Malaysian Cuisine – 3700 Midland Avenue, Toronto

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A Visitor’s Guide to Chinese Food in Toronto

by Jing on 2010/05/02 in North America

My friend’s from Montreal recently came to Toronto for a brief visit and I wanted to ensure that they really got to know what the city had to offer. Having met at Beijing University, we spent months discovering China, eating out practically every day. I wanted us to relive those moments dining on awesome Asian food, particularly the Mainland Mandarin stuff. Not to mention that Montreal Chinese food sucks, this is their chance to savor Toronto’s Chinese food scene and make them wish they lived here. Here’s a quick list of where I normally take out-of-towners for great, tastes-like-the-Mainland, Chinese food:

Ding Tai Fung
Great place for Shanghai style food, not to be confused with the real Ding Tai Fung franchise from Taiwan. Their soup dumplings (xiao long bao) is the best in the city along with many other appetizer-style foods like:  Fu Qi Fei Pian (Married Couple’s Slices of Lung – thinly sliced beef, beef lung/stomach/tongue in Szechuan spices), Dan Dan noodles, etc.

3235 Hwy 7 East, Unit #18B, Markham ON

905-943-9880

Ten Ren Tea House
A great place I take my mother and elder’s too as it almost seems like a classy tea house for adults when the kids aren’t around. Bubble tea here is the best, along with tea trays of various kinds.  Taiwanese snacks are good, especially the sausages.

3636 Steeles Ave, Markham ON
905-305-8332

Xin Jiang Restaurant
If you’ve ever been to China, you should have noticed the food stalls selling street meat on a stick, also known as a lamb kabobs. In the streets of Beijing, a typical kabob would cost about 0.50 Yuan, or about 0.10 CAD, and it was often accompanied by bottles of Tsing Tao beer. As good as those memories were, it’s been impossible to find this kind of food that comes from the Xinjiang province in China, a province that borders Central Asia and is known for its Uyghur people and for its “not-so-Chinese” food.

3636 Steeles Avenue, Markham ON
905-948-9966

Asian Legend
Northern style Chinese food, a great place to take family or friends for dinner. Order the xiao long bao (soup filled dumplings), stir fried green beans, zha jiang mian (fried sauce noodles), and other appetizers.

Backyard Garden
Really good Mainland food.  The best Fu Qi Fei Pian in the city. Order suan cai yu (sour vegetable fish pot), shui zhu yu pian (fish, chili peppers, and a large amount of oil), ma po dou fu (spicy tofu), amongst many other classically mainland dishes.

3636 Steeles Avenue, Markham ON
905-415-8988

Where else would you recommend?!

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Restaurant Review: Restauran Malaysia

by Jing on 2010/04/30 in North America

Is it possible to find a good Malaysian restaurant outside the country? No…. but one certainly comes close in Toronto and that’s Restauran Malaysia. What surmounts as an unoriginal name spelled correctly in Bahasa Malaysia for “restaurant”, Restauran Malaysia offers an authentic variety of Malaysian cuisine and packs a punch of flavor. Though bearing some close resemblance to Thai, Malaysian cuisine is much different and can be a refreshing change from the Thai obsession in Toronto. Yes, other countries have green, red, and yellow curries. You are best to try and sure to realize that Malaysian curry is awesome.

To prepare for the meal, order a cup of Teh Tarik (literally translated as “pulled tea”), a Malaysian version of the Hong Kong milk tea. Though similar, the tea is literally pulled in the air for mixing, giving it a frothy and rich texture. This drink is offered in hot or cold version, but this drink is best experienced hot to maximize the flavor and texture. You may enjoy it cold in the summer, as true Malaysians enjoy it out on the scorching streets. This drink is made very well here, as they use similar ingredients (steeped tea, condensed milk, evaporated milk) and a technique similar to how it is done back home. The pulling technique isn’t as spectacular and seems more like pouring. So please visit this link to see how Teh Tarik is really pulled.

Follow this with a few roti canai and the accompanying chicken curry sauce for dipping. Similar to the Indian roti, Malaysian roti is much fluffier, flakier, and crunchier. Again, the roti is close but is not offered in the same varieties as Roti Bomb, Roti Tissue, and the likes in Malaysia.


Recommendations for main dishes from best to great include: Penang Chow Kuai Tiew, Mee Goreng, Beef Rendang, Malaysian yellow chicken curry, Wonton Ho, Mee Xiam, and Nasi Lemak. Though these dishes do not give true credit to the variety, tastes, and accuracies of real Malaysian cuisine, they give you a sample for what Malaysian food is really like. The portion sizes are full, so order one dish per person and share it among the table (ex: at least 3 main dishes for a table of 4).

I give props to Restauran Malaysia for the great food while frowning at the unsightly Thai dishes found throughout the menu. If possible, avoid these and stay true to the Malaysian experience. The service is also mediocre and the place can be very loud when fully packed. Waiting in line can also be a horrible experience, so avoid the peek hours and go on Sunday nights, before 6, or after 8 as they do not take reservations. Another consideration is that the food is Halal, as Asian restaurants don’t offer this.

Overall, this is a great restaurant and one which I frequent often.  So see you there!

Location: 815 Major Mackenzie Drive East, Richmond Hill, ON L4C 9X2, (905) 508-1432,
Website: http://www.restoranmalaysia.com/

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Eh Canadian Flavour

by Jing on 2010/04/26 in North America

Canadian FoodI was going to start my first article with a formal introduction, but frankly, I don’t really know where to begin! I love food, plain and simple, and I like learning about what I eat. Whenever I go travel, I make sure I do my research on the things I need to eat to really get to know a country. For example, I made sure I ate at an asado in Argentina, Peking duck in Beijing, and Roti in Malaysia. And each dish is but one in several thousands that you would have to sample to really appreciate what the country has to offer. There’s simply TOO MUCH to eat. So I thought I’d start small, start local, and try to appreciate the things that are closer to home. This is a start of my documentation of Canadian food in a series I’d like to call “Eh Canadian Flavour”.

But what is Canadian food? Whenever someone asks me about Canadian cuisine, my first instinct is our beloved fries drowned in cheese curds and gravy. That is often followed by an honorable mention of seal meat served at our prime minister’s office. What follows is often a look of disgust, but to each his own. Each country has their stereotypical bites, and one of ours happens to be covered in gravy. My musings got me thinking more about Canadian cuisine, beyond the typical poutine and maple syrup. Canada is such a multicultural country, with foods (and people) spanning from all corners of the world. Yes, we have our culinary touchtones, but we also have some of the best cuisine from almost every country. So if I were to redefine our stereotypical food, where would I begin?

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