Chicken Rice @ Hainan Jee Fan, Ebisu, Tokyo

 

Chicken rice has been a staple lunch option for me throughout the years. Well, until now that is. So I considered myself very lucky to have been introduced to an establishment that has done it right. Before I go into the grainy details, unlike most Malaysians, I have nothing against Singaporean food. It is hard to argue about its origins to some extent. Then again, are we disputing where the California roll comes from? So now on to show, shall we?

Looks like a sign made of Unowns! 

The people behind Hainan Jee Fan, like most Japanese restaurants, are pretty direct with their name picking. The establishment serves Hainanese chicken rice which has been touted to be very authentic. Being chicken rice shop, there is nothing more obvious than getting a plate of chicken rice, which stands at 980 yen. 

Holy mama! Pardon the lights, as seems like the owners like a more steampunk vibe. 

This is probably the most expensive plate of chicken rice I have experienced! Then again, it can be a bit hard to find long grain or jasmine rice here, which is a necessary ingredient. Heck, half of chicken rice is the rice itself, right? And I was fortunate that they used the right type of rice than the standard short grain Japanese rice. The rice was full of body and flavour. It was savoury, salty and a little sweet. The sauces that came with it are the classic chilli, dark soy, and ginger. The chicken was steamed to perfection. Simple, but when done right, it is just incredible. 

Note: not an omelette

It should be noted that this establishment does not only serve chicken rice, but also other Chinese style street food staples. One example will be chai tao ke, which is stir fried daikon cake for the uninitiated. The daikon cake pieces were hidden underneath a huge omelette which gave an interesting texture. This is not how I usually have it, but it does taste correct. With a smoky and savoury profile playing along with a chewy and pliable texture, this was an absolute joy of a dish. It has loads of pickled vegetables, which gave of that classic sweetness of the dish.  In fact, this is one of my favourite dishes and I am just so ashamed that I have not written about this after all this time. Hopefully, I can make amends for this soon. It was a bit unfortunate I have forgotten how much this cost, but I believe it was below the 1000 yen mark. 

Saucy

To round this meal off, coffee flavoured pork ribs with steamed buns came soon after. Despite the name, you are not chugging down a shot of espresso. And the coffee added some smoky depths into the meat as well, which was savoury and well seasoned. The steamed buns were good carb padding, and the buns themselves were fluffy and tasty too. The ribs stood at 1200 yen. 

Bite sized bombshell

So despite being far away from home, I found this really spot on. This is particularly impressive, seeing that the people in charge are mostly local Japanese. With an urban retro decor and a modern take on the Chinese food staple I got back home, it felt like teleportation to Petaling Street for a moment. So if you are looking for some great chicken rice, why not stop by Hainan Jee Fan? They have a few branches throughout Tokyo. But if you would like to drop by the branch I visited in Ebisu, then the address is as follows: 

〒150-0013 Tokyo, Shibuya City, Ebisu, 1 Chome−21−14 1F Costa De Verano

Front of the house.