108宝宝 Hainanese Chicken Rice (Chinatown Complex Food Centre)

Chinatown Complex Market & Food Centre has been seeing a few new stalls taking over the former premises of some which I hadn’t been within the hawker centre for long; an example would be 108宝宝 Hainanese Chicken Rice which can be found in the blue zone of the hawker centre. These folks had taken over the shortlived 五香虾饼Wu Xiang Xia Bing stall which seemed to have originated from the one situated at People’s Park Food Centre considering the generic namesake of the stall at the way that the signboard had been designed previously. 108宝宝 Hainanese Chicken Rice should be relatively easy to find, being located just right beside Fei Ye Ye Food Tradition 肥爷爷 传统美食 within Chinatown Complex Food Centre — their signboard featuring a white background whilst also contains illustrations of their various offerings at the same time. As its namesake suggests, 108宝宝 Hainanese Chicken Rice is a stall that primarily serves up Hainanese-style chicken rice; the offerings will include poached chicken and roasted chicken that is served with rice or without rice, and for those coming with rice being in sets or ala-carte. Apart from the chicken, these folks also do serve up Roast Pork and Char Siew, whilst patrons can also add braised egg or opt for other Add Ons such as that of oyster sauce vegetables and beansprouts as well.

We initially wanted to give their Char Siew a go but was told that it was unavailable for the day when we made our order at the counter; we found ourselves going for the Roast Pork to go along with our order of the Poached Chicken Rice which we had thought was a must-try since 108宝宝 Hainanese Chicken Rice is a stall that specialises in Hainanese Chicken Rice. It does seem that 108宝宝 Hainanese Chicken Rice’s strongest suit is indeed in their poached chicken — the poached chicken here does come deboned neatly and the chicken comes sufficiently moist, tender and juicy; not particularly dry in a way that would result in it being streaky or fibrous. There is also a slight drizzle of light soy sauce that helps to provide a contrasting savoury note that adds some depth of flavours to the chicken. The chicken rice here is also sufficiently flavourful and reasonably moist; the rice having absorbed the briny notes of the chicken stock that it was cooked it for a good flavour without feeling particularly greasy — the grains also being distinguishable from one another. Meanwhile, the Roast Pork that is being served up at 108宝宝 Hainanese Chicken Rice was one that was pretty old school being all smoky yet savoury — no doubt the skin of the roast pork was less than crackling, though the flesh was surprisingly well-executed being tender and moist but not overly gelatinous at the same time; the texture of the meat itself being quite on-point.