Heaven for food lovers

Hainanese chicken rice.[Photo by Wang Chao/China Daily]

Hainanese chicken rice is called the national dish of Singapore and it is a musttry for foreigners. Although it is called "Hainanese", it cannot be found in China's Hainan province. The recipe was adapted from early Chinese immigrants originally from Hainan province.

The dish is surprisingly simple: It looks like plain steamed chicken covered on steamed rice. But once you taste it, it is food from heaven.

The secret is in the rice: A good chef will steamthe chicken slowly until it is cooked, and then soak it in cold water to keep its tender texture.

The plain white rice is actually cooked in chicken broth with pandan leaves, with light soy sauce, ginger paste and chilies added.

The one I tried was recommended by our guide: the Tiantian Hainanese Chicken Rice in the Maxwell Hawker Center. The shop is not big and the shop sign is quite simple. It doesn't even own its own tables, and customers have to take their own cooked food to find a table in the public hall.

The owner is a woman apparently who's not too money-minded: it was barely 5:30 and crowds of tourists and locals had just begun to flood into the food center but she turned off the light and pulled down the the shuttles

- and called it a day.

No matter how much the customers begged, she shook her head. She might have learned from Steve Jobs for the hunger marketing, or she simply don't care that much formoney. But if you want to try themost popular Hainanese chicken rice, be there early.

Chili crab is another signature dish made from fried crabs with a fragrant red chili and tomato sauce. It is slightly expensive compared with other food because of the expensive rawmaterials, but definitely worth trying if you are not on a tight budget.