Samsui Chicken @ Keng Eng Kee Seafood. Legacy of Singapore's Samsui Women

Samsui chicken is a seldom seen variant of the ubiquitous chicken rice in Singapore. Only the Soup Restaurant chain has Samsui chicken on its regular menu, while Keng Eng Kee Seafood at Bukit Merah Lane 1 have it on pre-order basis ☎ 6272 1038.

Samsui chicken is the way Samsui people eat their chicken rice. During my childhood, Samsui women with their signature red headscarf were a common sight in construction sites all over Singapore. (Image courtesy of NAS.)

By the turn of the new Millennium, all Samsui women had retired and their familiar red headscarf was no longer seen. Only sculptures and public housing flats which they helped built remind us of their role in Singapore's nation building. (Image of 1960s vintage HDB flat courtesy of NAS.)

To me, Samsui chicken is a dish which also reminds me of Samsui women's legacy in Singapore.

Samsui chicken is poached, chopped in large chunks, and served in a shallow pool of savoury sweet sauce and smothered in a thick blanket of grated ginger and scallion. Garnished with coriander, Samsui chicken is eaten wrapped with lettuce.

Yeah, it is not a very photogenic dish. Samsui chicken is seldom served in Singapore and even rarer on social media where something's worth is often judged by their "Instagrammability".

Today, we had Samsui chicken at Keng Eng Kee Seafood restaurant and we all loved it. Samsui chicken is not on KEK's regular menu but they will prepare it on pre-order ☎ 6272 1038. Made with free range kampung chicken, the bird was cooked through i.e. no pink.

Samsui chicken is eaten by folding a piece of chicken and grated ginger in a lettuce leaf i.e. a wrap. It is eaten with plain white boiled rice.

The chicken meat was tender and juicy with a squeaky feel to the bite which I like. The savoury sweet sauce was mild and so too was the grated ginger and scallion. I was able to taste the free range chicken's natural sweetness underlying the savoury sweet sauce and mild gentle ginger heat.

The mound of ginger looked intimidating but its gentle flavour and aroma complemented the chicken natural flavours, instead of overpowering it.

When I taste Samsui chicken, it reminds me of Samsui women whom only eat this dish on special occasions.

During their heyday in Singapore from the 1930s to the 1980s, Samsui women do the heavy lifting at construction sites, no different to men. They played a big role in building the early generation of public housing flats (SIT and its successor, HDB) in Singapore. (Image courtesy of NAS.)

Samsui women came from the Sanshui district of Foshan city in Guangdong province of China. (Map of Sanshui courtesy of Wikipedia.)

Sanshui district is located in the northwest portion of Foshan City and is just one hour car ride from Guangzhou city.

Sanshui literally means "three waters" as the district is located where three rivers, Xijiang, Beijiang and Suijiang meet. In the past, Sanshui suffered from constant, often deadly floods. Poverty and severe floods forced many Samsui people including Samsui women to leave home. About 3,000 Samsui women came to Singapore in the 1930s.

Many of the 3,000 were young single women who vowed never to marry when they left Sanshui. Some were mothers, leaving their families for work in Singapore. Most came to Singapore expecting to return to their homeland. (Image courtesy of NAS.)

In Singapore, Samsui women kept in touch with their families in Sanshui through letters. They regularly remitted money and sent gifts home. Samsui women were frugal and ate Samsui chicken only on special occasions.

Because of their distinctive headscarf, the Samsui women's role in nation building was visible and well recognised. We are grateful to them for their contributions such as the early generations of HDB flats which are visible all over Singapore.

By the turn of the Millennium most Samsui women had retired and they faded from view, leaving only their work as their legacy.

There are wall murals and statues dedicated to Samsui women but many people may walk past them without realising their meaning and significance.

When I pass this Samsui women sculpture at the URA building, I always use it as a cue to talk about Samsui women.

The Samsui chicken dish is one of the ways we can remind ourselves of Samsui women and their contributions while enjoying a delicious meal.

Samsui chicken was one of the dishes we had for lunch today at Keng Eng Kee Seafood restaurant. We also had coffee pork ribs, claypot pork liver, Chinese spinach with fried anchovies, and moonlight fried hor fun.

Keng Eng Kee's signature coffee pork ribs come with distinctive coffee aroma. The fried boneless pork was tender and juicy with layers of sweetness from the marinate and pork.

Pork liver slices, scallion and onion in a claypot of sizzling, bubbling steamy hot savoury sweet sauce. The pork liver slices need to be eaten soon after the dish is served to avoid overcooking. My buddies keep saying they enjoyed this dish even after I took a while to take photos 😁

Crunchy Chinese spinach stir fried in a mild savoury sweet sauce and served under a tangled heap of fried dried anchovies. The crispy anchovies added a savoury layer to the dish (but they were not overly salty).

We love Keng Eng Kee's Moonlight Hor Fun. The sauce's savoury sweet flavour was well infused in the broad rice noodles. Folding the raw egg into the noodles coated them with a silky slick and added a sweet eggy taste.

We enjoyed the Samsui chicken at Keng Eng Kee. Tender juicy sweet poached free range chicken eaten with mild grated ginger wrapped in crunchy lettuce. 

Murals, sculptures, the Singapore skyline and Samsui chicken remind me of the strong women of Sanshui who came here far from home to help build our city. Thank you Mesdames.

Restaurant name: Keng Eng Kee Seafood

Address: 124 Bukit Merah Lane 1, #01-136, Singapore 150124

Tel: +65 6272 1038 (call to pre-order your Samsui chicken)

Hours: Lunch 11:30am - 2:00pm | Dinner 5:00pm - 10:00pm

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Date: 6 Oct 2020