When Singapore leader Lee Kwan Yu was asked what he thought the Philippines lacked, he said: Discipline.
What made Singapore attractive to visit? The place is clean, safe, offers lots of shopping opportunities and is a melting pot of cuisines—Malay, Thai, Indian, Indonesian, etc. It is a paradise for foodies.
One of its must-go-to restaurants, Wee Nam Kee, now has an extension in Promenade Greenhills.
As soon as I walked in, I was able to size up the Hainanese Chicken Rice even without seeing it.
Generally, Singaporean restaurants in Manila will never capture the authentic taste of Singaporean chicken.
Big surprise
But that day in Greenhills, I was in for a big surprise. Because I wanted to try other Wee Nam Kee dishes, I came with my Valle Verde badminton group.
I started with a very refreshing drink of cucumber lime fizz. Very good.
Then came the appetizers, prawn paste wings. They’re crunchy, a must-try.
We also had the simple-looking mantau bread with a sauce of condensed milk on the side. It’s comfort food at its finest.
Chicken fat
Then came the surprise. The large yellow chicken is the equivalent of the authentic Hainanese Chicken. The skin was thick, yellow and coated with what made this chicken tasted so good: chicken fat!
With a dipping sauce of three—sweet soy, chili and minced ginger—the dish brought us diners to cloud nine.
The chicken rice was also outstanding. It had simplicity of taste but was very delicious—a perfect complement to the yellow chicken.
In Singapore, people eat Hainanese Chicken Rice with only two sauces, the sweet soy and the chili. So I had to ask for minced ginger.
Other dishes you must try are the fall-off-the-bone Cashew Coffee Ribs, Salted Eggs Chicken, Sambal Kangkong and Wee Nam Kee Fried Rice.
The ribs were a bit sweet but opened up my taste buds to a new sensation.
The salted-egg chicken was coated with batter made of duck egg and was deep-fried.
The kangkong had dark, sweetish sour sauce. The fried rice was a perfect match with anything fried.
A few hours after, we were in the badminton courts trying to sweat off all the chicken fat and yummy food. Our exercise was our license to indulge ourselves in wonderful food trips such as these.
What an experience. Slowly, our shores are getting the taste of many authentic cuisines.
Wee Nam Kee is at Unit 123, G/F, Greenhills Promenade in San Juan. Call 4041108 and 0917- 7008765.
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