5/19/08 - Can someone please write and tell me where I can find a good Hainan chicken rice? Ever since I saw Anthony bourdain have it in Singapore, I've been trying to get a hold of the dish but to no avail. Heck, it's one of the "national dishes" in that country and they even serve it on Singapore Airlines, so why hasn't it reached Hawaii yet?!
Hainan is actually an island off of China, but many of its inhabitants immigrated to Singapore, Malaysia, and elsewhere in the Indonesian region. The dish has many variations but is basically a whole chicken boiled in chicken stock, along with various seasonings, and served alongside or on top of a fragrant jasmine rice that is cooked in a separate vat of oily chicken stock. Various sauces are also served on the side, such as chili, ginger, oyster, and soy. The thing looks sooo good despite it's relative simplicity. You do know that simplicity is very often a good thing, right? - I often say that sometimes, the best way to cook any type of meat, whether it be chicken, beef, pork, or fish is simply sprinked with natural salt, that's it! In any case, I gotta try a good chicken rice somewhere - just hope I don't have to fly to Singapore to do so!
I actually came to Panya, at the Ala Moana Shopping Center, specifically expecting to find the dish because it was listed on their website, but apparently, they've since pulled it off the menu! Uuuuggh! I was looking forward to it all day! No worries, though. Just gotta roll with the punches. I knew the menu was huge so I was bound to find something worthwhile.
I don't know if you remember when they were strictly a bakery at their McCully Shopping Center location, but those little pies of sweet bread were the best, especially around 1-2pm, when they'd just come out. They were light as a cloud except for the slightly heavier, slightly crunchy crust that had a perfectly-finished touch of sweetness added. Thank God, they are still making these loaves.
On the opposite side of the bakery section, which is right at the entrance, there are several rows of self-serve goodies in the style of most modern Asian bakeries. And for everone's sake, please use the plastic yellow tongs you see on the left! The items are very appealing, coming in the form of sweet treats like scones, donuts, muffins, and cookies, but also with such savory snacks as potato bacon danishes, curry sausage croissants, and even spam rolls!
As you move past the bakery, you enter the dining area and bar, which come with a contemporary, yet casual touch. The designer reached pretty far with this setting, but it does work - kinda. I liked the blue-light, see-through panels with even darker blue bottles behind it, as well as the sets of hanging mini-lanterns, but the string curtain of dangling shiny circles may have pushed it just a wee bit much. But then again, it's still fun and different, and I like when people take a risk and push things out to the edge. Why not? She still go, brah.
Between the bakery, the bar, and the dining room, this little bistro gets a surprisingly decent flow of traffic. The crowd itself didn't quite fit into any one type of genre, as seated around us was a young couple obviously just in the throes of love, an older gentleman sitting right across who kinda creeped out wifey because of the dark glasses that he never did remove, and a couple of businesswomen busily talking about the horrors of their work situation, as well as a smattering of locals, mainlander's, and of course, Japanese tourists!
The first thing we ordered was a garlic toast crostini with toppings of both crab salad and smoked salmon. I did make sure it was real crab and not the imitation stuff before ordering, and that it was, while the other side was basically a lox 'n bagels type of thing, with slices of smoked salmon, red onions, large capers, and a cream cheese/herb mix that was so thin I could hardly tell it was there. I wish the crostini was layered with a good dose of olive oil to soften up the crunchy toast a bit, as crumbs were flying everywhere with each bite. It was like a Captain Crunch commercial, and a rude awakening that overpowers the toppings in a big way. I would have prefferred something softer, like a slice of French bread or sourdough - or even a Ritz cracker, come to think of it!
Wifey came once before and enjoyed the Panya house noodle, which is a laksa. Like chicken rice, it is popular in both Singapore and Malaysia, but this particular dish is more closely tied in with Malaysia. There is a sour fish-based version called assam laksa, but the one you see most is the curry-type laksa, with noodles inside of the strong coconut-milk curries typical of South East Asia. The marriage of noodles and curry is kinda like a ramen that mixes their dashi broth with, say, mabo tofu, or a pho noodle soup that combines with beef stew.
The bright orange broth was a pretty sight, coming with shrimp, aburage, fishcake, corn, beansprouts, and green onion. The portions were very generous, as wifey could only put down half of this bowl.
Here is a portion of the noodle that wifey did manage to finish.
My order was a braised Vietnamese-style fish with a dark, spicy sauce. They didn't specify what type of fish it was but it must have been, judging by the tender and moist white flakes, a good quality of fish, probably an opakapaka or other kind of deeper-water snapper. When the waiter dropped it off he asked if I needed shoyu, which kinda puzzled me - The dish was already dark, as if shoyu were already used liberally, and it sure did look appetizing and full of flavor, as most Vietnamese dishes are. Little did I know, however, that after my initial refusals, I'd be calling that same waiter back to heed his earlier offers - the shoyu was definitely needed. Outside of the heat and spice, there was not much in the way of taste.
After the fish and a good portion of wifey's laksa noodles, I was done for. Not even the Panya sweet bread or other bakery items we passed on the way out could persuade me to buy something to take home, a feat that probably wouldn't be possible on an empty stomach.
I wasn't the happiest camper after this meal, but maybe the stinging dissapointment of no Hainan chicken rice put a damper on things. I've only been here twice, so I can't really say much about the other items. Some of the dishes that passed by on the way to other diners sure did look good, with the laksa coming around more than any other item.
Mark my words, I will show you all a nice plate of chicken rice somewhere, someday, and hopefully it will be on this island. With the large South East Asian population here, somebody must have it. Maybe downtown?
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