Singapre

 Welcome to Singapore!  This is a country that, when I think of it, I think something like the jungles of Thailand, not the infrastructure of Abu Dabi!  But Singapore has lots of high-rises and is a huge city.  Singapore is the only island-city-state in the world: this means the whole country is basically just one big city, without a capital. It is one of only three surviving city-states in the world. The other two are Monaco and Vatican City. It is home to the largest indoor waterfall in the world, and the pictures are stunning.  It's in one of the airports, so maybe a trip to Singapore is in the cards?  There are several more things about Singapore that I could add here, but I think maybe we should just go and see for ourselves...  According to Google, the population of Singapore is 5.3 million people and the capital is Singapore (see above for the explanation :-) ).  Their national dish is...

Hainanese Chicken and Rice!

It looked simple enough...but there were lots of little steps to this meal.  And who doesn't love chicken and rice? It's a classic!  To go along with the Hainanese chicken and rice, we made Mango Sago, which is like a mango tapioca pudding-like dish.  Here's what we did:

HAINANESE CHICKEN AND RICE

For the Chicken

1 whole chicken

1/4 C salt for exfoliating (the salt is for cleaning the chicken, this is not consumed)

4 inch section of fresh ginger peeled and cut into 1/4'' slices

4 cloves garlic

2 stalks green onion cut into 1" sections (both green and white parts)

1 tbsp sesame oil

For the Rice

2 tbsp avocado oil

2 cloves garlic, finely minced

1 shallot, minced

1 inch section of ginger, finely minced

2 C rice

2 C reserved chicken poaching broth

1/2 tsp sesame oil

For the Chili Sauce

1 tbsp lime juice

2 tbsp reserved chicken poaching broth

2 tsp sugar

4 tbsp sriracha chili sauce

4 cloves garlic

1 inch section of ginger, peeled

For the Ginger Garlic Sauce

4 tbsp avocado oil

2 tbsp fresh ginger, grated

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp rice vinegar

COOK THE CHICKEN: 

1. Boil a large pot of water. 
2. Clean the chicken by exfoliating with kosher or coarse salt. Rinse chicken well, inside and outside.
3. When water is at a hard boil, add the chicken. 
4. Return to hard boil, let scum come to the surface. 
5. Boil for 5 minutes. Discard all the water, including the scum.
6. Refill pot with clean water to cover the chicken by 1-inch, and add in the garlic, green onion and ginger. 
7. Bring the pot to a boil over high heat, then immediately turn the heat to low to keep a simmer.
8. Cook for about 30 minutes more.
9. The chicken is done when it reaches 160 degrees.  The chicken will continue to cook to 165F during rest.
10. When the chicken is cooked through, turn off the heat and remove the pot from the burner.
11. Immediately lift and transfer the chicken into a bath of ice water to cool. The quick cooling will stop the cooking process, keeping the meat soft and tender. 
12. After cooling, pat the chicken dry with paper towels and rub the sesame oil all over the chicken. This will help prevent the chicken from drying out.

SEASON SOUP: 

1. Discard the garlic, ginger and green onion. Season the soup with salt to taste.

COOK THE RICE: 

1. In a pot, heat 2 tablespoons of avocado oil over medium-high heat. 
2. When hot, add the ginger, shallots and the garlic and fry until your kitchen smells like heaven. 
3. Add in the uncooked rice and stir to coat, cook for an additional minute. 
4. Add the sesame oil, mix well.
5. Add 2 cups of your reserved poaching broth and bring to a boil. 
6. Immediately turn the heat down to low, cover the pot and cook for 15 minutes. 
7. Remove from heat and let sit (with lid still on) for 5-10 minutes more.
8. While the rice is cooking, make the sauces and carve the chicken for serving.

MAKE SAUCES: 

1. To make the chili sauce: Blend your chili sauce ingredients in a blender until smooth and bright red.
2. To make the ginger garlic sauce: In a small saucepan, heat the cooking oil until very hot, when you start seeing wisps of smoke. 
3. Turn off heat. 
4. Immediately add garlic and ginger and let it sizzle for a few seconds. 
5. Once it settles, stir in salt and vinegar.
6. Serve all together and enjoy!

(Source: Hainanese Chicken and Rice)

MANGO SAGO

1 large ripe mango

1/4 C Sago pearls, medium size

1/2 C condensed milk

1 tbsp sugar

1 C milk

1. Cook the sago pearls according to the package directions, until they turn transparent and gets cooked.
2. Drain the cooked sago pearls and wash again under the running water, this removes additional starch.
3. Peel and chop mango into small pieces.
4. Reserve 1/4 cup of pieces for usage later.
5. Boil milk until it is reduced to half and cool the milk.
6. Grind the cooled milk, mango pieces, condensed milk and sugar to a smooth puree in a blender. 
7. Now mix the pureed mango mixture with the cooked and washed sago pearls to a uniform mixture.
8. The consistency should be slightly thick.
9. Add reserved mango pieces, mix, and pour into individual bowls and garnish with few mango pieces and chill it for 2-3 hrs.
10. Enjoy!

(Source: Mango Sago)

The verdict?  This dish was a bit underwhelming.  We expected a lot more flavor, with this meal being from Singapore.  But it wasn't exciting at all.  It tasted like plain chicken and rice.  However, the garlic ginger sauce was delicious.  We put that on everything, and it helped make it better.  We were not impressed with the mango sago either.  The flavors were strange: it tasted like an artificially sweet mango.  Then you add the textures of the sago pearls, and it was just off.  We ended up throwing it out.  I wonder if you liked tapioca pudding if you would like this.  Overall, underwhelming dish.  

 

ME

Taste of Hainanese Chicken and Rice (1 is terrible, 10 is amazing): 5

Spicy (hot) (1 is not at all spicy, 10 is uneatable): 0

Flavor (1 is no flavor, 10 is packed with flavor): 4

 

HANDSOME HUSBAND

Taste of Hainanese Chicken and Rice (1 is terrible, 10 is amazing): 6

Spicy (hot) (1 is not at all spicy, 10 is uneatable): 0

Flavor (1 is no flavor, 10 is packed with flavor): 4

ME

Taste of Mango Sago (1 is terrible, 10 is amazing): 4

Spicy (hot) (1 is not at all spicy, 10 is uneatable): 0

Flavor (1 is no flavor, 10 is packed with flavor): 4

 

HANDSOME HUSBAND

Taste of Mango Sago (1 is terrible, 10 is amazing): 6

Spicy (hot) (1 is not at all spicy, 10 is uneatable): 0

Flavor (1 is no flavor, 10 is packed with flavor): 7

Another country in the books!  Join us next time as we eat in Cameroon!