There are and will be many famous chicken rice brands in Singapore and around the world but none will be or will ever be as famous as the original Swee Kee 瑞记.
Many brands can be famous, some even legendary, but only rarely will one reach a mythical level like Swee Kee 瑞记.
Swee Kee 瑞记 was founded by 莫履瑞 Moh Lee Twee in 1949.
莫履瑞 Moh Lee Twee (1914 - 1977) worked for and learned his craft from Wong Yi Guan 王义元, the Father of Singapore chicken rice.
By the 1950s, 莫履瑞 Moh Lee Twee's Swee Kee restaurant at #51 & #53 Middle Road had outdone his own master's hawker stall at 琼霖园咖啡店 #43 Middle Road.
莫履瑞 Moh Lee Twee was a grateful man who remembered the source of his good fortune 饮水思源. For years after the success of Swee Kee, 莫履瑞 Moh Lee Twee continued to regularly call upon his master Wong Yi Guan and offered the customary ang bao 红包 (gift of cash in red paper packet).
What was Swee Kee's mythical chicken rice like?
This is how renowned food critic Chua Lam 蔡澜 described the cooking of Swee Kee's chicken rice.
"Sauté a large amount of garlic (with skin) and ginger in oil, then stuff a bunch of scallion rolled up, along with bay leaves (what Malays call "pandan"), into the chicken's cavity. Rub salt on the chicken skin.
Boil a large pot of water, add a spoonful of salt as soon as it boils, boil again, add more salt, and so on, judging by experience how salty it should be.
Put the chicken into the broth and blanch for five minutes, then remove it and rinse it in cold water.
Boil the water again, then blanch it again. Repeat this three or four times, depending on the size of the chicken; don't rigidly adhere to the rules.
Finally, hang the chicken to air dry.
The water from blanching the chicken leaves a layer of chicken fat - use this to sauté shallots in a pot, then add rice and stir-fry it. Transfer the stir-fried rice to another pot to cook, using half of the water from blanching the chicken.
Reserve the other half to make a side soup with cabbage and preserved vegetables.
Another version says that you put raw rice in a funnel-shaped metal pot and steam it with boiling water underneath - this is how old friends who have seen 莫履瑞 Moh Lee Twee make it have passed down the recipe."
Grateful for Chua Lam's detailed record for the benefit of future generations.
The greased rice grains were discrete and separate easily. The soft tender rice was flavourful. Fragrance from the rice filled the air in the restaurant.
Please add your personal memories in the comments section of this article 🙏
One of the keys to Swee Kee's success was the quality of their chicken. Swee Kee had their own farm and Moh Lee Twee personally handpicked the live birds for the restaurant.
The chicken lorry would deliver to the back alley of Swee Kee, for Moh Lee Twee to select the birds. Moh Lee Twee would judge the quality of the birds by hand examining their weight, butt, feathers, etc., one bird at a time, a technique he learned from his master Wong Yi Guan. The chosen birds were kept in cages at the restaurant for a few days before they were processed and cooked, so they were very fresh.
Swee Kee was an obligatory check-in for the who's who of Chinese entertainment and business elite visiting Singapore.
Global celebrities who graced Swee Kee included actress Li Li-hua 李麗華.
Moh Lee Twee had four sons. According to birth order - Moh Tai Sing, Freddy Moh Tai Tong, Moh Tai Siang and Royston Moh Tai Suan (youngest).
莫履瑞 Moh Lee Twee passed on in 1977.
Eldest son 莫泰松 Moh Tai Sing took over the reins. 莫泰松 kept up the standards of his father, so Swee Kee continued to prosper.
In the mid-eighties, Swee Kee briefly also had an air conditioned branch at Fortune Centre, Middle Road ran by Freddy Moh but it didn't last.
Moh Tai Sing was killed in a car crash in 1987.
Moh Tai Sing's younger brothers continued running Swee Kee until 1997 when it was closed for rebuilding. Freddy Moh shared ambitious rebuilding and expansions plans - the existing twin shophouses would be demolished and replaced by a new large six storey building which will house the 3-floor restaurant, Moh family homes, workers' quarters and carparks.
But, Swee Kee never reopened. There were rumours of a comeback now and then rising the hopes of Swee Kee's many fans but sadly it never materialised.
After Swee Kee closed in 1997, many chicken rice stalls and restaurants opened in Singapore claiming ties with Swee Kee Chicken Rice. Such is the power of Swee Kee's brand equity. But, according to the Moh family, the only one with familial ties with Swee Kee is Restoran Swee Kee established in 1997 by 莫泰琼 in Senai, Johor.
In 2016, 莫泰錩 Moh Tai Siang told reporters about reopening Swee Kee in Singapore by tapping on the relatives in Senai, Johor but it didn't come to fruition.
Swee Kee will forever be a mythical giant in the world of chicken rice. It was the first regionally famous Singapore chicken rice restaurant that set the humble homely staple from rural Hainan Island on the road to become one of the great dishes not only of Singapore but the world.
Fragrance of the rice fills the air. The barley in glass bottles my fave sight. Can’t remember the chicken, too young then 🤭
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