Hi Tasteemians! Today I'm happy to bring you to dine Hainanese Chicken Rice. People who loves chicken rice said that Hainanese prepares the best chicken rice.
The criteria of a good chicken rice is of course, the chicken - the chicken meat must be old/mature enough, corn-fed chickens and free range chickens are best, I guess.. the texture in mouth should not be too tender but a bit chewy with lots of natural chicken flavor.
The rice - must be steamed with chicken extracted oil and some ginger, some even enhanced the aroma with crushed pandan leaves.
There is a new restaurant called KK CHICK, in our Kota Kinabalu city, Riverson (same building as Gleneagles).
Taken by me on 12 Feb 2019 with owner's permission.
The red cloth over the signboard means it has not officially open yet. They initiated business before Opening Ceremony.
The setting was designed simple. Furnitures looked like canteen style, bench attached table but much more solid and good looking wood.
The Menu
1. FOOD MENU
A large delicious list of yums and the prices I considered as reasonable.
2. DRINKS MENU
A large variety of drinks, the price I considered as medium high.
My Order
There was so many to choose from!!! drool
Finally, I chose
- Signature Hainanese Chick Rice,
- Macaroni Salad,
- Organic Oat with Fruits and
- {take-away} Chicken Chop & Mince with Rice.
Then, I waited for about 10 minutes before a nice waiter came to inform me that there's no fruits for the Organic Oat... I changed the order to another item (same priced), Kitchai Honey Ice (Kitchai in Chinese Hakka term = Calamansi lime).
Food and Drinks Arrival
Yay! My Macaroni Salad arrived! This was my appetizer. I love Macaroni but this was sweet. Instead of using mayonnaise only, they also used sweetened creamer in the dressing. I still love it but my diabetes had to compromise. 😫
However, I loved that little chopped spring onion on top!
My drink came next. Kitchai Honey Ice, looking good. Usual coffee shop only used 2 limes, but they used 3 limes. YEY, extra lime.
Lastly, came the main meal. Looking really great! I loved this set up! They really kept it traditional. Hainanese eat their chicken rice with chopsticks and spoon. I got those here.
_Yes, it is possible to eat rice with chopsticks because Hainanese rice clump up together, being cooked with chicken broth and oil, they tended to be sticky.
The steamed chicken was portioned nicely and topped with spring onions also, with my favourite stuff - fried chopped garlic! 😋😋😋
The soup and three 'stooges'!!!
Soup was mild and no MSG. Good. The three prime condiments were
- Ground ginger.
- Ground chilli and garlic.
- Soy sauce (thick or thin)
Oh, the white one was just sugar.
I dipped my chicken meat to the condiments before mixing with rice... and EAT!!! Oh, the flavor was enhanced. Taste palates started to ignite. Very delicious indeed. MUST TRY AT HOME!!!
Now! Extra information for using Chopsticks! (Please gimme extra points for this...)
Hold your chopsticks sideways, don't point down. Pick up a clump of rice slowly, as the stickiness will hold them together. The other hand, may hold the bowl.
Chopsticks Etiquette
- Hold chopsticks parallel (not X or crossing).
- Never stab/jab chopsticks onto rice and make them stand.
- Never pretend to "play drums" with your chopsticks.
- Never pretend to be "vampire" using the chopsticks in your mouth.
- When eating dishes with other guests, never dip your chopsticks to the shared food (ask for a spoon or fork to particularly take the food).
- Never take one chopstick and stab a dimsum.
All of the above are considered as rude or disrespect of culture, except for making the chopsticks stand stabbing the rice - that means like the food is for offering or praying to the dead like joss sticks.
Service
It was a newly established restaurant, I could see the service staff were a bit inexperienced. Somebody cut the queue during order and the cashier served that customer first. I told the cashier not to do that anymore. Overall, they were friendly and smiling all the time. The way they present the food to customers was great - they would smile and say Enjoy!
The Take Away
I would give them 10/10 for the packaging. Check this out:
Prepackes chopsticks, spoon and a toothpick! NICE! A bowl of savory soup and the main meal.
Chicken Chop & Minced with Rice. Wonderfully presented with veggies and steamed corn on the side. It was for my son, he said it was awesome.
In Conclusion
This restaurant serves great authentic food and I would recommend to all my friends and family. For me, I will go again because they served me the best Hainanese Chicken Rice, after having so many times in different shops.
Thank you for reading my post! Your time is worthy and I'm very happy you spent some time with me. You all motivated me to do more reviews. Thank you. Till next review!
All photos are taken by my OPPO F5, featuring ne
Restaurant Information
KK CHICK Riverson Kota Kinabalu
Jalan Riverson 1, 88000 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia
This post participated in the Tasteem contest Your weekly choice
