Monday, April 30, 2012

Ah-Tai Hainanese Chicken Rice [阿仔海南鸡饭] - Breakaway Stall from Tian Tian @ Maxwell Market

The competition is heating up between two Hainanese chicken rice stalls at Maxwell Hawker Centre; the famous incumbent by the name of Tian Tian Chicken Rice and a new entrant by the name of Ah-Tai Hainanese Chicken Rice.

Go read the newspapers [Sunday Times last week] if you still have no idea what i mean. 

To summarise, Ah-Tai is helmed by a very unhappy chef who used to work for Tian Tian. To put it bluntly, he was incensed enough to open a new chicken rice stall just two stalls away from his ex-boss.

That's what i call guts!

Kon has always placed Tian Tian as the top chicken rice stall in Singapore and given this latest development, the Gang of Four intentionally made a trip to Chinatown / Tanjong Pagar just to compare and contrast.

Since we had a lot of Swiss rolls (to be out in another post) before this, half a chicken was definitely not an option and we obediently obeyed our stomachs (a rarity) by ordering two small plates at S$3 each.

There were four of us and opinions differ on the rice. Both Alex and I found it to be better than Tian Tian; stronger garlic fragrance with a slightly more moist texture but Kon thought it was way too oily.

On chicken meat, we were quite unanimous in our review - although smooth with a delicious meaty bite, the meat was a tad too dry for our liking.

I still prefer my chicken rice from Guan Gourmet House!

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Location
Stall No 7
Maxwell Food Centre

Price
S$3 a plate

Additional Information
The queue at Ah-Tai was in fact longer than Tian Tian even though it was obvious from the travel guidebooks held tightly in their hands that most of those who visited Tian Tian were foreigners!

Beware of the demand; i was the last few to get my hands on Ah Tai Hainanese Chicken Rice and my watch had not even passed 5.15pm!

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