Singapore Sling The cult of chicken rice By Rennie Loh	フレームで見る  英文をプリントする  脚注をプリントする
グルメ大国のこだわりの料理 中国系、インド系、マレー系民族が持つ独自の味が融合し、豊かな食文化を誇るシンガポール。中でも地元で人気の高い屋台料理は海南（ハイナン）チキンライス。もともと中国海南島から伝わったオリジナルの味に少しずつ工夫が加えられ、今ではシンガポールの屋台に欠かせない一品です。

Singapore is heaven for the foodies with its sheer variety of international and local fare. In April, the island played host to two premier food events — the Singapore Food Festival (SFF) and the World Gourmet Summit (WGS). The SFF aims to celebrate and reflect the unique and diverse ways food is enjoyed in Singapore, while the WGS is a congregation of the best in the culinary field, showcasing a stellar cast of master chefs and winemakers from around the world.

One must have a cavernous stomach to feast on all these gastronomic delights. However, this is no great feat to Singaporeans who have made a national pastime of feasting.

It was not just the locals who were able to relish the splendor of all that food. The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) had made it accessible to foreigners alike by introducing international culinary events, such as the Pakistan Food Galore and the Fine Art of Japanese Cuisine Appreciation that appealed to foreign tastes.

Singaporeans eat round the clock and their favorite haunts have to be the hawker centers, where authentic native cuisine is readily available. The term "hawker" was originally used to describe food vendors who roamed the streets with carts selling food. Vendors now sell a whole range of dishes from the city's multiethnic cuisine, which includes Chinese, Indian and Malay food, in bustling street markets or air-conditioned food centers. These hawker centers are usually basic, undecorated establishments lit by glaring fluorescent lights at night. Though they are not charming, they make up for their lack of charm in quality and the unbeatable prices of the food, starting from as low as Singapore $2 (¥143) for a bowl of noodles. Many office workers flock to the nearest hawker centers for their lunch because of their variety and affordability.

Among the plethora of local Chinese food, Hainanese chicken rice is considered the island's most distinctive dish, even over fish head curry and chili crabs. This suggests the dish has evolved into something uniquely Singaporean after being brought to Singapore by immigrant Chinese and exposed to a diversity of culinary traditions, including Malay and Indian as well as those from a variety of regions in China.

Hailing from Hainan Island off the southern coast of China, the Singaporean version of Hainanese chicken rice is rice cooked with a rich chicken stock, served with boiled chicken drizzled with a mixture of light soy sauce and sesame oil. Condiments include a ginger dip, chili sauce and salty-sweet dark soy sauce.

It is as easy to find a place that serves Hainanese chicken rice in Singapore as it is to find a Starbucks in Seattle, and great chicken rice is not hard to find.

Hainanese chicken rice is a simple dish in concept, but difficult in execution. The preparation procedures are meticulous and laborious for each of the three elements that make up chicken rice: the stock, the rice and the chicken.

Chicken bones are simmered for several hours to create a richly textured soup base, sometimes given an extra robustness with pork bones. To this is added ginger, garlic, shallots, spring onions and a variety of aromatic spices like white peppercorns, coriander roots and lemongrass. Chickens are subsequently cooked thoroughly in the fragrant boiling stock.

As for the rice, it is gently stir-fried, occasionally with chopped garlic and shallots, in the chicken fat taken from the surface of the chicken stock broth. The broth is also used to cook the rice and is often served separately to the chicken rice.

So how authentic is Singapore's version of Hainanese chicken rice? The obvious difference lies in the dips. Chicken rice is usually served along with three sauce dips. Chili sauce and ground ginger sauces are the staple dips, but thick dark soy sauce is Singapore's substitute for the oyster sauce-garlic mix traditionally offered in Hainan as the third dip.

Ethnic influences from Indian and Malay cuisine have also made Singaporeans prefer their chili dips hotter. Hainanese chili sauce is usually diluted with white vinegar, but locally, many prefer finely chopped chili soaked in a base of local limes and chicken drippings. The differences may seem small, but most Singaporeans find it unimaginable to eat chicken rice without hot spicy chili. Hence, chili dip is a must-have condiment to this dish.

Whenever I tuck into a plate of delectable chicken rice, I cannot help wondering how this dish has evolved in such a way that it is now so much revered by locals and tourists alike. Indeed, it is food for thought.

Shukan ST: May 3, 2002

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