Sing Swee Kee Hainanese Chicken Rice & Zi Char 📍 Seah Street 新瑞记 佘街 ☏ 6337 7180

Sing Swee Kee Hainanese Chicken Rice and Zi Char 新瑞记📍34 - 35 Seah St, Singapore 188391 🚅 10 minute walk from City Hall station ☏ 6337 7180 ⏰ 11am - 9pm

First time visiting Sing Swee Kee 新瑞记 at Seah Street (near Raffles Hotel).

I just realised that Sing Swee Kee has over 20 years in the business. Sing Swee Kee 新瑞记 is only one of two chicken rice shops given permission by the Moh family to use the name of the legendary Swee Kee Chicken Rice. (The other is Sin Swee Kee in Senai, Johor.) In fact, the Sing 新 prefix was Moh family's own suggestion.

Swee Kee founded by Moh Lee Twee 莫履瑞 in the 1950s, is recognised as the epitome of Singapore chicken rice - closed since 1997, the name Swee Kee still carries the aura, hence it is widely adopted in Singapore and Malaysia. Sing Swee Kee 新瑞记 was founded four years later in 2001, and has built up its own legacy.

The two shop lot restaurant at Seah Street was spacious, though simply furnished was air-conditioned, bright, clean and very comfortable.

It's a good place to hangout ☕

The signature chicken rice. We had both the deep fried (brown) and poached (white) versions.

The poached chicken was done tender with a slight chewiness to the bite, closer to what you would experience in Hainan Island itself.

Very little chicken taste, good if you don't like any "gaminess" in your bird. Personally, I prefer to have more chicken taste.

Deep fried chicken. Not traditionally Hainan, I never came across this in Hainan but in Singapore, deep fried chicken outsell poached chicken.

Nicely deep fried, so the bird retained the texture and taste of poached chicken with added savoury sweetness from caramelised marination on the well browned skin.

Traditional boiled rice with chicken stock, oil and aromatics like shallot & ginger. Texture was tender, nutty and non greasy which I like and savoury sweet flavours was very gentle.

Chicken rice ball. Hand formed, similar in taste profile as the above rice. Didn't have the soft mushed rice, heavy grease texture, more intense flavour and smell of traditional rice ball.

Deep fried chicken rice balls. The exterior was browned and the shell was quite hard and gritty.

Inside the fried rice ball, it was relatively dry and had some savoury sweet flavour.

Love this fresh ginger, scallion and oil sauce. Gentle spicy heat with ginger and scallion aroma, perfect with subtly sweet chicken.

Fresh, spritely, spicy hot chili sauce.

新瑞记 Sing Swee Kee is not only about chicken rice. It has a full range of Hainanese style dishes from grandma's kitchen, homely and laden with tradition.

I love their (actually grandma's) 传统海南羊肉汤 Traditional Hainanese Mutton Soup.

It's the Chinese medicinal / herbal type, quite different in taste profile from the nam you (red fermented bean curd 南乳) type at British Hainan and Ivy's.

They were generous with the meaty ribs which were fall-off-the-bone tender. The savoury, sweet medicinal herbal flavour and smell were quite pronounced. They use more than 10 different herbs. The characteristic gaminess of mutton was present in a pleasant way.

The nam yu used to marinate the mutton didn't stand out.

This is one place I will come back for the Hainanese mutton soup in a comfortable, highly accessible location at a competitive price.

The humble and not pretty chap chye (mixed vegetables) - I didn't expect myself to enjoy this. The cabbage and glass noodles absorbed the savoury sauce flavours and cuttlefish umami which balanced the cabbage's natural sweetness well. The crunchy pork lard cracklings added texture and flavour, elevating our enjoyment.

Homely 鱼香茄子 Braised Eggplant. The brinjal soft and juicy sweet sponged up the savoury umami flavours from the braising sauce. Dressed with scallion and bits of chili. A good side dish to complement the chicken rice.

Visit Hainanese restaurant must of course eat their pork chop 🤭

Lovely authentic crisp biscuit crumb crust deep fried to perfection. (If you have been following me, you know I very rarely use hyperbole.)

The meat though, wasn't as moist or tender as I hoped and didn't have much porky sweetness.

The sauce was savoury sweet tangy and had peas and onion, the way traditional Hainanese pork chop was done.

Digression: Another famous Hainanese restaurant replaced this iconic sauce with slaw 🙄 All in the name of "modernisation" but wrong for me at so many levels lah. I still want it the old way like here at Sing Swee Kee.

Premium Collagen Broth with Fish Maw. Savoury umami and sweet in a tasty smooth, full bodied broth.

Wrapped up our lunch with a traditional Hainanese dessert or kueh known as yi bua 薏粑.

Traditional yi bua has all the characteristics of tropical China. Glutinous rice dough wrapping grated coconut pulp, sesame seed, crushed roasted peanut, all held together with gula Melaka (caramelised coconut palm sugar). Steamed wrapped in banana leaf.

I like the modern twist of putting yi bua through a waffle iron. The hot pressed spongy gummy chewy kueh becomes a bit firmer and chewy with a subtle crisp and crunch. I like it.

Hai Lam style kopi, of course. Sock brewed, bitter with bold caffeine kick, perfect with sweet nutty yi bua. Yeah, as I mentioned earlier, this is a good place for a coffee break. Aircon, clean, comfortable, accessible, affordable.

Sing Swee Kee is more than chicken rice. It's like a living museum telling the journey of Singapore Hainanese through delicious Hainanese cuisine.

Starting from village kitchens in Hainan Island (e.g. herbal mutton soup, chap chye, yi bua), to the struggle to find a foothold in British Malaya (Hainanese pork chop) to playing key roles in independent Singapore's development, food culture and success (Hainanese chicken rice).

Disclosure: Please note that this was an invited media tasting but opinions expressed are all steadfastly mine alone, at the risk of not being invited again.