Tribute to Grandfather Han

Two days ago I received a telephone call informing me that my cousin’s grandfather suffered a massive heart attack and passed on shortly after. The good news, he died a happy man. On the night before he passed on, he two things that he loved, he cooked and he was with his family. I’ve just realised that I don’t know his name, as I have always know him as the Han’s Gong Gong who is Hainanese and used to work as a chef and who always cooked chicken rice for their family reunion dinners.

My connection with him is a little strange. I’m not his grandchild, although he has known of my existence since I was a child since I was constantly hanging out with his grandchildren. I also spent half a day with him and his wife in the kitchen of their flat. After several months or sporadic request for his recipes, I finally got him to agree to teach me how to make chicken rice. Very unfortunately, I disappointed the man when I forgot about our first meeting. After which my cousins, uncle and aunty repeatedly made me feel guilty in relaying this message: he was really disappointed and he bought a lot of food because he thought you were coming. With the heavy burden of guilt, I made sure I did not miss the next meeting.

I was greeted with a warm smile and a sincere “hello!” at the door. He invited me into his kitchen and went about his cooking. Moving about at a slower speed as age has caught up, he nonetheless talked energetically about his approach to his chicken rice and his method to preserving the juiciness of the chicken. He never said much, he was a generally a man of few words, but for that morning, he chatted wittily with me about his cooking and food and the various dishes he was cooking for lunch that day because they were the favourites of his respective grandchildren. For that day in his flat, we shared a moment and connected over food and the love for cooking for people.

Here’s a tribute to the man I know as the Han’s Gong Gong or Grandfather Han, he was great cook but above that he was a man with big heart that was well loved and would be missed.



*photos by Hongde.

Maxwell Market - Maxed on Rice

Usually on a weekday, I try to watch the amount of carbohydrates I have for lunch as a preemptive for the next few hours at my work desk would be an uphill struggle. So since it was the weekend and there was nothing much planned for the rest of the day other than to stretch out on the bed after lunch to recharge for the next week, the limited carbohydrate rule didn’t stand but what took place for lunch today was a little too extreme.

I went to Maxwell and I totally maxed out on rice, 3 very delicious portions of it. The first was hainanese curry rice with a portion of pork chops. The pork chops were well seasoned and crisp, but I prefer the thick curry combination at Tian Tian Hainanese Curry Rice where it was thicker and richer. The second tasting portion of rice was claypot rice. Wonderful crunchy bits of burnt rice wearing a rich gloss of dark sauce with fresh tasting pieces of chicken and slices of sweet lup cheong, yummy! Finally, we had chicken rice from madam foo’s Tian Tian Chicken Rice stall, which legendary in terms of the number of accolades that she has gathered after for her 40 years of labour in this craft. Her chicken is succulent and has a lovely layer of jelly inbetween its skin and meat and the chilli is very punchy.

Rice, rice and more rice: Hainanese curry rice with pork chops, claypot rice and chicken rice. “Have you eaten you rice?”

Singapore my home, chicken rice our dish

Wee Nam Kee Hainanese Chicken Rice & Restaurant
275 Thomson Road
#01-05 Novena Ville
Tel: 62556396



While some Singaporeans were at the polls last Saturday deciding the future of our nation, I decided to perform a patriotic deed by eating our national dish, chicken rice. When it comes to chicken rice, fat is flavour. The only (damn) reason that the fragrant rice is so tasty is because of the rendered chicken fat that is added to the rice cooking liquid. Low-fat and healthier options such as white rice are now available but in my opinion, if you do so, the whole meal is a little as tak shiok. Part of the whole ritual in eating this dish is smothering your cream-coloured chicken fat laced rice with ribbons of sweet dark soy sauce, chilli sauce and pounded ginger and to mix it all together, matching flavour for flavour. Imagine if you opted for white rice, all you will have then is rice + dark soy sauce + chilli sauce + pounded ginger that’s just not as fun (really, I’ve tried the healthy route and I’ve backtracked).





I, who would usually shun chicken rice because of the garlic-ginger taste that lingers and lingers and lingers, liked it so much that I’ve been there twice in 7 days (I’m not sure if I’m a convert yet) and so I would go out on a limb and say that this is one of the top 5 chicken rice stalls on our island. Other than the good chilli and the succulent chicken, the shui jiao (water dumpling with minced pork and prawns) is also a must have when I dine here, although don’t bother too much with the soup, just zero on for the bobbing dumplings in the soup. Another tip, if you aren’t too much of a rice fan, you can order a plate of noodles that will be dressed with the savoury chicken sauce, which are great to slurp on with the shui jiao and chicken.