Salted Egg Chicken Rice Hao Jie Shao 好介绍 has been a stall that we have earmarked to try for quite a while by now; located at Marine Parade Central Food Centre, the stall seems to be one of the few, if not, the only stall that is serving up zichar-style fare within the food centre. The stall can be found situated closer to where 金 Kuching Original Kolo Noodle Laksa is located — Hao Jie Shao itself featuring a rather attention-grabbing signage featuring a cartoon character lady chef with some of its fish dishes depicted at the sides. Considering how Hao Jie Shao is an establishment that operates much like a small-scale zichar stall, the menu of Hao Jie Shao comprises of meat, seafood, fish, vegetable, rice and noodle dishes that would work well for those whom are looking for communal dishes to be shared around the table. That being said, Hao Jie Shao does offer quite a number of rice and noodles dishes, as well as individually-sized portions of meat + rice dishes that would work well for those whom are dining alone.
Being folks whom are into their Salted Egg Chicken Rice, the decision to drop by Hao Jie Shao at Marine Parade Food Centre was actually solely based on the availability of the Salted Egg Chicken Rice dish on their menu. it is noted that there wasn’t too long of a waiting time for the dish; we found our buzzer ringing by the time we had just settled after buying our drinks from a nearby stall. While not the case with all zichar-style establishments, Hao Jie Shao followed the style of most zichar-style establishments where the sunny side-up is a chargeable option if patrons so wish to add one to their rice dishes; something we skipped out on when we made our visit. One rather unique element about the Salted Egg Chicken Rice here is rather evident from the salted egg sauce that the chunks of chicken were cooked with; the sauce does bear the same hue of yellow that the plates come in (quite unfortunate a situation since hawker here do not really have a choice on the plates they use), though take a closer look and one can indeed observe specks of salted egg laced in the sauce.
For a “wet” iteration of the Salted Egg Chicken Rice, it’s interesting to note how they skewed the flavours of the dish towards the savoury side; perhaps a little salty for a version of the dish that is this rich. We did observe that the dish seemed to have lacked the inclusion of chili padi and curry leaves; perhaps adding those during the wok-frying process might help to provide the dish with the flavour contrast that it needs. Where it came to the chicken chunks, it does seem a little bit more apparent on why the sauce had been done so rich — whilst not noticeable when had with the sauce and rice, the chunks of chicken did come with a slightly greasy note; we also felt that the chicken chunks lack crispness and felt a little limp for our liking. At $6.50, the Salted Egg Chicken Rice at Hao Jie Shao is one that would likely satisfy the cravings for those whom are into salted egg dishes — this is especially so if one’s preferences lays closer towards the sort that does not lie towards being too creamy akin to buttermilk chicken with a hint of sweetness, though probably one that creates an impression so strong to make an out-of-the-way visit for.