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Immigrants from China's Hainan Island brought chicken rice to Singapore many decades ago, and in the years since then it has become a national icon. It comprises poached chicken served with fragrant rice cooked in chicken broth with ginger and garlic accompanied by a zesty chilli-lime sauce, a pungent ginger puree, and thick black soy sauce. Aficionados may argue for hours over which stall has the most silky-textured meat, the most sumptuous rice, or the most incendiary chilli.

Cantonese and Malay hawkers have adopted the dish too, making subtly different versions with different spices and also fried or roasted chicken. However, the glorious combination of grainy, aromatic rice, tender meat, and vibrant condiments remains constant. The Fun - and the decadence - comes in trying all the diverse variations to find your own favorite.

Recommended Restaurants

Boon Tong Kee

425 River Valley Road, Telephone : (65) 6736 3213

199 East Coast Road, Telephone : (65) 6478 1462

Chatter box

333, Orchard Road, Meritus Mandarin Hotel, Telephone : (65) 6831 6291

Five Star Hainanese Chicken Rice

191 East coast Road, Telephone : (65) 6777 5555

Long Kee Chicken Rice

#02-25 Hong Lim Market & Food Centre, Block 531A Upper Cross Street

Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice

Stall 10, Maxwell Road Food Centre

YetCon

25 Purvis Street, Telephone : (65) 6337 6819

Recipe

Ingredients
1 (2-pound) chicken
1 scallion, cut into 1 inch pieces
4 slices fresh, peeled ginger
6 tbsp vegetable oil or chicken oil rendered from chicken fat
6 to 8 cloves garlic, finely chopped
4 cups long-grain uncooked rice, washed and drained
1 tsp fine salt

Mix together for Chilli Sauce
2 to 3 tbsp freshly squeezed lime or lemon juice, 5 tbsp finely chopped fresh red chilies, 5 cloves garlic, chopped, 3 tbsp finely chopped ginger, 1 tsp fine salt, 1/2 cup boiling hot chicken soup

Method
Boil a large pot of water. Stuff the cavity of the chicken with scallion and ginger. Add chicken to boiling water, breast side-down. Lower the heat to a simmer just under boiling point and cook, covered until just cooked through, about 40 minutes. Bathe the chicken in an ice water bath till chicken is cold to create a tender, springy texture. Heat oil in a rice cooker, add garlic, stir fry till fragrant. Add uncooked rice, stir fry for two minutes, add salt and enough chicken soup to cover 1/2 inch above the top of the rice. Boil on high heat, lower heat when steam holes form, cover and steam for 30 minutes till rice is cooked. Chop chicken and serve with steaming hot rice and chilli sauce. Dark soya sauce is the ideal accompaniment.

Chilli Crab, Singapore's unofficial "national dish", had beginnings as humble as the country itself. In the 1950s, Madam Cher Yam Tian and her husband Mr Lim Choon Ngee set up a seafood hawker stall right on the seashore, cooking by the light of a kerosene lamp daily from dusk till dawn. One of Madam Cher's specialities? Live crabs in a zesty chilli-spiked gravy, the first version of the Singapore chilli-crab.

That stall is long gone, but close to its original spot now stands the East Coast Seafood Center, where a bevy of restaurants cook up a storm of chilli crab every night for hordes of eager diners.

Nowadays, the dish has many incarnations; some are packed with fresh spices like galangal, ginger and turmeric, some are sweet and sour and rosy with tomato, others are mixed with beaten egg, and still others carry the sting of chilli oil. all are meant to be attached with gusto - and a nutcracker to tackle thick shells, plus a few slices of French bread or mantou (Chinese buns) to help you soak up every last drop of delicious sauce.

Black pepper crabs started becoming popular in the 1980s, and now most crustacean-theme restaurants offer crabs simply stir-fried with pungent doses of black or white peppercorns, alongside chilli crab.

Recommended Restaurants

Gold Coast Seafood

22 Cavenagh Road, #01-22, Hotel Grand Central, Telephone : (65) 6732 5352

Jumbo Seafood 

#01-07/08, East coast Seafood Centre, 1206 East Coast Parkway, Telephone : (65) 6442 3435

#B1-48, The Riverwalk, 20 Upper Circular road, Telephone : (65) 6534 3435

30 Merchant Road, #01-01/02, Riverside Point, Telephone : (65) 6532 3435

#01-05, Singapore Indoor Stadium No 2 Stadium Walk, Telephone : (65) 6440 3435

Long Beach Seafood Restaurant

1018 East Coast Parkway (next to ECP Burger King), Telephone : (65) 6445 8833

 

#10-04, East Coast Seafood Centre, 1202 East Coast Parkway Telephone : (65) 6448 3636

Carpark A, Marina South Telephone : (65) 6323 2222

 

IMM Level 3 (next to Rooftop Gardens), Jurong East St. 21

Telephone : (65) 6566 9933

 

No Signboard Seafood

414 Geylang road, next to Lorong 24, Telephone : (65) 6842 3415

#01-14/16, The Esplanade, 8 Rafflest Avenue, Telephone : (65) 6336 9959

#03-02 Vivocity, 1 Harbourfront Walk, Telephone : (65) 6376 9959

Palm Beach Seafood Restaurant

#01-08, One Fullerton, 1 Fullerton Road, Telephone : (65) 6423 0040

Red House Seafood Restaurant

#01-05 East Coast Seafood Centre, 1204 East Coast Parkway. Telephone : (65) 6442 3112

Recipe

Ingredients
1 lb (450g) mud crabs or soft shelled crabs
4 tbsp plain flour if using soft shelled crabs
3 tbsp vegetable oil*
8 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
8 fresh red chilli, roughly chopped
1 egg
2 spring onions (scallions), cut into finger length
1 tsp freshly squeezed lime or lemon juice
1 small bunch coriander plant (cilantro)
*For soft-shelled crabs, oil for deep frying

Mix together for Sauce
1 cup of water, 5 tbsp tomato catsup, 1 1/2 to 3 tbsp sugar, or according to taste, 1 1/2 tsp cornflour, 1 tsp pounded brown preserved soya beans or dark miso (optional), 1/4 tsp salt
Method
Heat the oil in a wok or shallow saucepan over high heat. Add garlic and stir-fry for 1 minute. Add the chilli, stir-fry till fragrant. For mud crabs, add at this stage. Fry well till shells start turning red, add sauce ingredients stir well, cover with lid and simmer till shells are red. Break eggs into the wok and streak with a fork, simmer till cooked. Squeeze lime juice over and stir in scallions. For soft-shelled crabs, cut each crab into four, dry well, dredge in flour and deep fry till golden brown and crispy. Make the sauce as above, but omit the mud crabs. Toss soft shelled crabs in sauce just before serving.