Friday, September 30, 2016

Sin Swee Kee, Seah Street

Sin Swee Kee, chicken rice

Sin Swee Kee (35 Seah Street, tel +65 6337 7180)is named after a chicken rice institution, Swee Kee. The latter has not been in operation since the 90s. This shop from what I know has no relation to them despite having a very similar name. The setup is pretty much like how Chin Chin works at Purvis Street. The mainstays are cze char, Hainanese pork chops and chicken rice. I'm pretty sure I have visited this place at some point years ago but couldn't really remember much from that time beyond that it was not bad.

Sin Swee Kee, chicken

Here's a half chicken along with kailan stir fried with salted fish. They are using kampung chicken, so these birds are somewhat smaller, less fatty and are possibly older than the younger GM chickens that are bred to grow fast - and hence, a yellower hue to their skin. Also, we're don't see the dousing of light soy sauce with sesame oil as many regular chicken rice stalls tend to do. Using chickens that are not engineered to grow fast also means a longer turn around period since the rearing of each batch would be a longer cycle. Which translates to more expensive chicken. It's $19 for a smaller half chook here. 

Sin Swee Kee, kailan

As chicken rice go, this wasn't bad at all. The rice itself wasn't excessively greasy and had their savoury flavours. Chicken was tender enough - just not as slurp of the bone tender as the ones from Sin Kee. There's also a bit more aroma of lime than usual in their chilli sauce. The kailan was a competent stir fry but one could imagine them better if they improve on the quality of the vegetable they were using. Speaking of Sin Kee, it's about time I checked out their new shop down at Holland Drive.

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