What makes a good chicken rice?

The star of the show... flavourful chicken! Pictures by Eu Hooi Khaw

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 5 One Saturday afternoon, we weaved our way through traffic leading into busy Ampang, ending up at Restoran Loke Yun. Its a chicken rice restaurant with a long history and had actually been recommended to us by a Chinese chef from Macau we had met recently over lunch.

We came away from the restaurant with a letdown feeling, and thought it was definitely not worth the stress of driving all the way there. The chicken and the rice were not exceptional.

The rice here is nice and fragrant.

I had expected a wonderful chilli sauce with ginger, but both seemed too watery and had very diluted flavours. It got me thinking of the sublime chicken rice I used to have in Serangoon Gardens, Singapore, and from where my sister would actually buy bottles of the chilli sauce to take home.

The only thing I truly liked here were the super smooth chicken intestines; we had two plates of these!

So Loke Yun was forgettable, but the next week we went to Tasty Chicken Rice in Kota Damansara. Now that put a different spin on things. The rice was fluffy, nice and fragrant. The chicken retained all its natural juices and flavour. The meat was smooth, the skin looked firm and the bite was right, without it tasting like it had been overboiled, and sitting too long in the water it had been cooked in.

A must-have is the chicken liver and gizzard.

We had a plate of chicken liver and gizzard, a bowl of sour vegetables, some bean sprouts, and the stewed chicken feet. The liver was nicely cooked, staying smooth and pink, lightly doused wit! h soya s auce and garlic oil.

My only grouse with this chicken rice is again the chilli sauce which didnt have the requisite punch and was too runny.

Sour vegetables or kai choy cooked with chilli and assam keping, usually with leftover meat, is one of my favourites. Its a perky side dish, sour and hot enough. It doesnt quite go with chicken rice but its nice to eat on its own.

Sour vegetables... doesnt quite go with chicken rice but very yummy.

I loved the stewed chicken feet, which had a lightly spiced and sweet caramelised spiced flavour. They were tender, smooth and gelatinous, and you want to slurp up the delicious sauce. The bean sprouts were delightfully fat, sweet and crunchy.

I missed having the honey char siu, and Im sure its very good as it was all gone by the time we arrived. So do go there before the busy lunch hour, and you will get everything you want to eat.

Tasty Chicken Rice is located at 22A-1, Jalan PJU 5/16, Kota Damansara, Petaling Jaya (Tel: 012-555-5591).

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