10. We ask this question to every person we’re interviewing for this GE — if you were a Singapore hawker food dish, which would you be and why?
Minister of Social and Family Development Tan Chuan-Jin will be leading the PAP team to contest for the Marine Parade GRC for GE 2015. interview with the Mothership team at Joo Chiat. 2015/08/29. 55 Chai Chee Avenue. Singapore. Photo © Edwin Koo/ @singaporeson #ge2015 #singaporeson #edwinkoo
Chicken rice, because I am Hainanese. It can be steamed or roasted, depending on my mood.
I used to like breast meat, which is usually the worst. And my family members will take the drum sticks. Now I realise what I've been missing out!
Chicken rice is my reference food. There are few reference dishes in a hawker centre - bah chok mee is the other one.
It is not a simple dish. I learnt how to cook it from my mom - you have to scrape off the fats to go into the rice. And I realise it is not healthy but there is a lot of effort that goes into the rice and chilli.
I've not been back to Hainan island, but I've been told the chicken rice in Singapore is better. And that's the beauty of it. Singapore is a hodgepodge of influences and things get assimilated and improved over time. This just shows that something may come from somewhere else, but we can make it better and build our own heritage.
https://mothership.sg/2015/09/tan-c...nister-esm-goh-chok-tong-making-chicken-rice/