Found out about Taste Hainanese Chicken Chop Rice 好滋味海南扒饭 whilst going past Maxwell Food Centre the other day, though we had found ourselves dropping by the stall albeit unplanned after realising that they had already opened their doors whilst being originally on the way to another location for lunch. Maxwell Food Centre had seen yet another couple of new food stalls that had opened in recent times; one will be able to find Taste Hainanese Chicken Chop Rice being located in the same row of shops where one can also find Hock Lai Seng 福来成 that is notable for its minced pork noodle offerings — Taste Hainanese Chicken Chop Rice occupies the stall in between 1980 Penang Prawn Noodle and the equally new Hong Wen Mutton Soup 红炆羊肉汤 that claims to be from the “Old” Beauty World. As its namesake suggests, Taste Hainanese Chicken Chop Rice serves up chicken chop rice as its signature items; that being said, Taste Hainanese Chicken Chop Rice does offer quite a decent variety of meat options that comes with different sauces on their menu as well — some items that Taste Hainanese Chicken Chop Rice serve up will include the Savoury Pork Chop Rice, Savoury Lamb Chop Rice and the Curry Chicken Chop Rice, just to name a few.

Noting that the namesake of the stall does include the words “Hainanese Chicken Chop Rice”, it was needless to say that the Hainanese Chicken Chop Rice was the item that we had eyed upon whilst skimming through the menu here — this was also an item that is being marked as a “signature” dish on the menu as well. Whilst Taste Hainanese Chicken Chop Rice does not describe about the elements that comes with the dishes that they serve up, it can be observed from our order that the Hainanese Chicken Chop Rice does come with a plate of white rice that is accompanied with Nyonya Achar, as well as a separate plate which the Chicken Chop is being served on — the Chicken Chop being drizzled with a Hainanese-Western style of sauce that also comes with nibs of peas, carrots and caramalised onions. Interestingly, the folks at Taste Hainanese Chicken Chop Rice does mention in its logo about “怡宝古早味” (i.e. old-school Ipoh flavours); we did notice that the batter of the chicken chop does come a little different from the usual Hainanese-Westerrn style of fried pork chop that we are a little more familiar in Singapore. Here, the Hainanese Chicken Chop does come with a light batter that seemingly involved that of an egg wash — the result of which is a slab of chicken with a very thin layer of batter with somewhat crisp edges on the exterior; very different from the batter involving the use of crushed soda biscuits that we tend to see more for the Hainanese-Westerrn style of fried pork chop here.

Considering so, the drizzling of the sauce does make the batter a little softer — the sauce carrying a mellow hint of tanginess, savouriness and sweetness from the use of a tomato-based sauce, Worcestershire sauce and caramelised onions; a very comforting and familiar flavour that went well with the rice that is plated separately from the Chicken Chop. We also found the slab of chicken chop to be sufficiently tender and moist, though we didn’t like that the plastic cutleries provided by them are a little too weak to effectively slice through the chicken. The Nyonya Achar served on the side featured strips of carrots and cucumbers; the flavours here being bright, tangy and just a wee bit spicy — delivered a refreshing crunch that helped to reset the tastebuds. With prices of their various dishes being in the range of $6.90 to $12, some dishes such as the Savoury Lamb Chop Rice and the Curry Lamb Chop Rice that are priced at $12 can be described as a little bit on the pricey side for a food stall situated within a hawker centre. That being said, we did find the Hainanese Chicken Chop Rice to be fairly decent; not one that was particularly gastronomical but certainly was familiar and comforting — something a little bit more fuss free perhaps. Might consider giving their Curry Chicken Chop Rice a go if we are to be thinking about what to have for a meal whilst being at Maxwell Food Centre.