My first eleven years of life flew by as a Singaporean, which automatically meant that I love food. Believe me, I wish it were an understatement. While Americans have baseball, and Canadians have hockey, Singapore’s national pastime has always been “eating”. A true national pastime may have eluded my childhood, but I wouldn’t trade all those food experiences away. Indeed, life in Canada sometimes feels as though it’s spent remembering the delicacies from the good old days.

There are too many dishes to remember from those days past. Some hold only a vague impression, while others shine vividly in the mind’s eye. But no matter who you talk to, Singaporeans or ex-Singaporeans, chicken rice has to be considered among the top 5 Singapore national dishes. I’ve searched high and low in Toronto for this taste of home. And even though I’ve found a suitable replacement candidate at Phoenix restaurant, I remain vigilant for new contenders to surface.

Chicken Rice

Phoenix’s version isn’t a complete copy, but I appreciate its innovation. Traditional chicken rice is accompanied by a healthy trio of condiments – sweet soya sauce (usually home made), garlic sauce, and sliced chili/chili sauce. The condiments help enable a personal dining experience. However, Phoenix has stripped away the soya sauce, and chili sauce. The garlic sauce remains alongside Phoenix’s own sauce – a thai sauce mutation. Being a Hong Kong style diner (affectionately called ‘tea restaurants’), Phoenix carries table-side chili oil, a poor substitute. The best you can hope for is a squeeze-bottle of sirracha if you ask for real chili sauce.

What Phoenix does get right are the textural and taste of the chicken itself. The rice is deceptively fragrant; cooked in chicken oil, chicken stock and ginger. Even the little bowl of soup laden of msg invokes warm memories of the old country. Including cucumber slices as a poor man’s palette cleanser maintains the traditional presentation. But I can’t help but be reminded by bed of oily lettuce where the chicken pieces rests, that my arteries thank me for not eating this dish every day.

Hainanese Chicken

Don’t order this dish if you have an aversion to chicken skin. The skin plays a big factor in determining the perfect chicken rice. The chicken gets dunked repeatedly between hot water and ice cold water to gelatinize the fat, creating the shiny skin and the desirable texture.

There is one superficial detail that seals the deal for me. Phoenix serves this dish with de-boned chicken pieces, putting it above all other Toronto challengers. Other restaurants should take note and adopt this treatment. It might be more work for the kitchen, but there’s a reason why almost all Singapore hawkers serve their chicken rice this way. There’s nothing enjoyable about picking out little chicken bits from your teeth as you eat.

The original Phoenix (there are 2 locations in Markham) has undergone renovation improvements, to match the modern decor of its second store on Woodbine and Steeles. It’s also taken over the space of former next-door neighbour, “Mumz Delicacies”. Business is good. The chicken rice still remains the most ordered, and talked-about dish in their repetoire.

I’ve eaten chicken rice from many places. Truly, there’s no place that beats the convenience and price found in Singapore and Malaysia. In Canada, Vancouver seems to be the best chicken rice city. Toronto still has a lot to catch up, but Phoenix’s flagship dish deserves a frequent visit while I live here.