The Chinese chicken that spread its wings

Wenchang chicken. [Photo/IC]

Boiled chicken, rice cooked with chicken oil and dip make up the simple and delicious Hainanese chicken rice, which has provided lingering nostalgia for overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia.

More than a century ago, large numbers of Hainan people spread across Southeast Asia, taking with them their native dish Hainanese chicken rice.

As time went by, Hainanese chicken rice gradually became a popular dish in Southeast Asian countries, including Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia.

Located in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, the Andrew Wong Hainanese Chicken Rice restaurant is quite popular among the locals.

Andrew Wong Hin Hau, the owner, whose ancestral home is in Qionghai, Hainan province, has been cooking Hainanese chicken rice since 2003.

Wong gets up at around 4 am every day to buy the necessary ingredients at the market, starts to prepare the dish at 5:30 am and gets everything ready around 10:30 am.

He says the most important thing for cooking Hainanese chicken rice is to choose good quality chicken, use Thai fragrant rice, and make the dipping sauce thick. "Hainanese chicken rice looks simple, but it is not easy to make it well," says Wong.

Wong has been constantly improving the recipe. "If the guests are not satisfied, I will find a way to make it better," he says, adding that he has never replaced the ingredients with cheaper ones. "You can't cheat your customers by using inferior ingredients just because prices keep rising," he says.

Over the years, Wong has always tried local Hainanese chicken rice whenever he visits a new place, such as Shanghai, Hong Kong and cities in Thailand. He wants to make his restaurant better by studying the dish at other restaurants.

In his eyes, Hainanese chicken rice is a delicacy and heritage from his home. "As a Hainanese, I'm proud to cook Hainanese chicken rice, so I will continue to do it," he says, noting that he has been cooking it for 19 years, and it's his dream career.

Welcomed by the diners, Wong's restaurant sells about 180 servings of Hainanese chicken rice per day. Scott Chong, from China's Guangdong province, is a regular customer. "The taste is good, especially the chicken, which is tender, and the rice is fragrant," he says.

Wenchang, a city in Hainan, is the birthplace of Hainanese chicken rice. On the island, Wenchang chicken is the basic ingredient for chicken rice.

Song Shenmei, 69, is the fourth-generation owner of a chicken restaurant in Wenchang, which he has been running for more than four decades.

"People in Wenchang eat Wenchang chicken during all the festivals," Song says, adding that during Qingming Festival, or Tomb Sweeping Day, many overseas Chinese returning home from Southeast Asian countries eat Wenchang chicken at his restaurant.

Song recalls that in the early 1980s, an overseas Chinese opened a chicken restaurant in Singapore. When he returned home, he came to visit Song's restaurant to learn how to cook chicken and make the sauce.

"Some overseas Chinese also like to watch me cooking, and when they learn how to make the dish, they cook it at home," Song adds.

Hainanese chicken rice not only satisfies the diners, but also embodies the taste of home for overseas Chinese from Hainan. It is a vivid reflection of the cultural exchange between people in countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative, from history to reality.

Michael Heng Yee Boon, president of Kota Kinabalu Hainan Association, is a second-generation Malaysian. Heng says chicken rice was always served during Spring Festival, and his mother would make it into rice balls, which symbolize "reunion" in Chinese.

Having tasted Hainanese chicken rice in both Hainan and Malaysia, Heng says the dish is different in the two places because of both the sauce and the way the dish is cooked.

"Our ancestors came to Malaysia to do business not just with Hainanese. There are different races and different cultures here, so we have combined the cultures to develop Malaysia's Hainanese chicken rice," he says.

"The Hainanese chicken rice in Malaysia is very international, and it is enjoyed by Malays and foreigners alike," he says, noting that the dish embodies the wisdom of their ancestors.

He believes that although culture is constantly evolving, the spirit of the Hainanese, especially their hardworking attitude, is still passed on from generation to generation in Malaysia.

"It's a touching moment whenever we have Hainanese chicken rice. For us, it's not only a delicacy, but indeed a part of our cultural roots, and we will continue to pass it on," Heng says.