Rui Kee Hainanese Chicken Rice: The Return of Swee Kee?
Update: Aug 2008: Rui Kee is closed
When it comes to Chicken Rice, there is only one name under the Singapore Sun that stands heads and shoulders above all the rest. Swee Kee. The very mention of the name strikes a chord of nostalgia amongst those around 30 and above. Swee Kee served the most yummilicious, tender and "chickeny" chicken ever. I still remembered the two times I was invited to Swee Kee by my Uncle while I was still a poor student. He used to order something like 4 chicken hind quarters and 2 chicken thighs for 3 persons. Every bite was a taste of heaven.
Word came through the forum that Swee Kee has been resurrected as Rui Kee. Some family members from the Swee Kee clan decided that it was time to bring back the taste of traditional Hainanese Chicken Rice to the masses.
Traditional Hainanese Chicken Rice (which really is traditional only to Singapore since you can't find this on Hainan island) unlike the Cantonese version, does not have Soy Sauce drizzled over it. The Swee Kee style of chicken rice really faded when Swee Kee closed in the 80's and in its place emerged the Cantonese version. Another difference is that the Hainanese do not hang their chickens because this would drain all the oil from the chicken. Instead the chickens are left lying on the plate.
Rui Kee was started by Ex-Model Jamus who used to love eating traditional chicken rice. He collaborated with his Aunt, who used to be one of the cooks at Swee Kee, to reintroduce Hainanese Style Chicken rice to a new generation of Singaporeans.
One of the unique things about Rui Kee is that you get to choose between Kampung Chicken, which I like to call the atheletic type and the Normal Chicken, which I call the voluptuous type. Unfortunately there is a trade off between taste and texture between the two. Swee Kee used to rear their own chickens, so their chicken used to taste great but at the same time, meaty and juicy. Nowadays there are very few chicken farms in Singapore (Swee Choon has a chicken farm in Lim Chu Kang producing eggs) so all the chickens come from Malaysia. Since the quality of Hainanese style chicken rests primarily on the quality of the chicken, there is no way that we can ever get Chickens of the quality that Swee Kee used to dish out.
Having said that, the chicken here is flavoursome and done well. The Kampong chicken was a bit more chewy but fuller in flavour, whilest the normal chicken was softer and juicier. I prefer my chicken really fat and juicy so I was a little dissappointed that the one here was not voluptuous enough.
The rice here is very good. It has got a nice bite to it, not too oily and very fragrant. I think this has got to do with the skill of the cook and that they fry their rice before cooking. Chilli lovers can rejoice as they have 2 types of chilli here. The normal one is reminiscent of the Swee Kee chili while people who like really spicy stuff can opt for their special reserve chilli which can really make you sweat and scratch your scalp (I exaggerate).
Last but not least, ladies can have the luxury of being served by the only Chicken Chunk in Singapore (short for Chicken Rice Chinese Hunk). So far he is the tastiest looking Chicken Rice seller I have come across with biceps that most men would aspire to have. I asked him how he got the biceps to which he replied: "I eat chicken rice everyday".
My wife insisted that I should give his biceps a rating of 4.75. She says mine is only a 4.
Conclusion
Don't come expecting Swee Kee and you will be pleasantly surprised by the standard of the chicken rice here which I would place in my A list of Chicken Rice stalls to visit. 4.25/5
Rui Kee Hainanese Chicken Rice
776 North Bridge Road
63964563
Mon - Sun
11am to 10pm
15 comments:
OMG, the big enamel plate with the chickens on it reminds me of Swee Kee alright.
The hunk's name is Jamus, not Jameson!
Thanks!
What a surprise! Jamus is an ex-colleague of mine. I was gonna suggest his restaurant to you guys but looks like you got there first!
Hi
Do give the chicken rice at Bossy a try. It is in Seah Street. It is quite good too, but it is only avail on Friday and Saturday. But be early, or you will have a very long wait.
Oh wow, never had the chance to try swee kee - would love to try it sometime real soon. The Chicken Chunk part was damn funny by the way haha!
Love the texture of the kampung chicken at Rui Kee. It has this nice bite to it, not too soft and not too hard.
The rice has this fragrant aroma, similar to that of Yet Con.
Yup, agree Bossy chicken rice is good, albeit it's only available on weekends.
Hi
Just wondering besides chicken rice, do they serve the traditional hainanese pork chop as well ???
Up till the early 90"s most hainanese restaurants over at middle road area or hai lam street (now part of bugis junction) used to offer that dish besides chicken rice.
Went to Rui Kee but stopped short of ta-powing when i saw all the plates of chicken, the diners are tucking in, were drizzled with some sauce. Traditional hainanese chicken rice is not like this. How is this so?
OMG, I just realised after checking the address on your blog that I had actually gone to the wrong Rui Kee. The one I went to was Sing Rui Kee and is on Seah Street.....oh my goodness. sorry about the above post.
went to have a plate at about 3pm.
agree that the chicken is nice and its just the type that i mentioned in my comment for tian tian chicken rice.
strange though.. wonder wad went wrong but the rice i had was no where fragrant.. agree its not oily.. but both my girlfriend and i find the rice quite substandard.. could be a 1 time thing.
will give it another try though..
wish me luck!
Nothing on the food but just like to point out that Jamus is not the first "Chicken Hunk" :) The now-defunct Toa Payoh Nam Kee's Clarqe Quay branch used to be run by a the son, a hunk too :) Quite widely written about in the papers back than, probably as part of their marketing strategy.
I was a hardcore Swee Kee fan and things that made it for them were:
1. Very minimal use of saseme oil on the chicken - they looked dry when served but the taste/juice comes out when you bite into it *heavenly*
2. The ultra-thick black source.
3. The sweet rice (together with the black source) that was so good one can even eat it plain for the entire meal!
I tried this outlet a while back and found that while the chicken was 'dry' enough for me, the taste was a little too 'saltish' and the rice was nowhere like what I was used to. Mind you, they are still above-average (given today's dismal chicken rice standards) but just would like to drop my opinion here.
Went down to North Bridge Road yesterday. It's closed already? Signboard still there but the shop is empty.
Apparently there is a newly opened shop called 'Sin Swee Kee' (New Swee Kee) with walls decorated with 'famous chicken rice'.
It's located at 25 Seah Street (the stretch between Bras Basha and Suntec city) .
I assume when it said famous it meant 'Swee Kee'? If not, my bad. Because I went there few days ago and I was utterly disappointed.
I would say it's barely acceptable to be even sold in hawker centers. Ah well.
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